Steven Chu
Table of contents
Current Position: Secretary of Energy (since January 2009)
Why He Matters
At a Glance
Current Position: Secretary of Energy (since January 2009)
Career History: Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (2004 to 2008); Professor in the physics and applied physics department of Stanford University (1987 to 2004); Technical staff of AT&T Bell Labs (1978 to 1987)
Birthday: N/A
Hometown: born in Saint Louis, Mo.; raised in Garden City, N.Y.
Alma Mater: University of Rochester, B.A. (mathematics and physics), 1970; University of California - Berkeley, Ph.D. (physics), 1976; University of California - Berkeley, postdoctoral fellow, 1976 to 1978
Spouse: N/A
Religion: N/A
DC Office: N/A
Email: N/A
Chu won the 1997 Nobel Prize for his 1985 work in figuring out how to cool down an atom to a temperature of nearly absolute zero (or -273 degrees Celsius) in order to trap light and manipulate it. He and his team used six laser beams to trap the atoms, creating what they called "optical molasses."
"The conventional wisdom at that time was first you hold the atom with light and then you make it cold so you can do what you want with it," said Chu in an interview.Chu, Steven, Berkley Labs Web site "My idea was to reverse this by cooling the atom first, then grabbing it with light."
It was Chu's work at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where he became director in 2004, that has earned him national stature. There, he has sought to make the lab, with its 4,000 employees and $650 million budget, a leader in carbon-neutral energy research. The lab is owned by the Energy Department (DOE).
As both the director of the lab and a professor of physics and molecular and cell biology at UC – Berkeley, Chu has focused on global warming and the need for carbon-neutral, renewable energy sources, which he calls "the greatest challenge facing science." Under his direction, the DOE lab began focusing on advancing biofuels, artificial photosynthesis, and other solar energy research. He's also been outspoken on the need to improve energy efficiency.
"The path to finding solutions is to bring together the finest, most passionate minds to work on the problem in a coordinated effort, and to give these researchers the resources commensurate with the challenge," Chu has said.Robert Birgenau, Steven Chu, San Francisco Chronicle Op-ed, April 15, 2008
The Senate confirmed Chu as Energy Secretary on Jan. 20, 2009. He is the first Nobel Laureate appointed to a cabinet post.
Path to Power
Chu was born in St. Louis, Mo., and raised in Garden City, N.Y., the son of Chinese academics who settled in the U.S. in the early '40s to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His father studied chemical engineering and his mother studied economics.
In his autobiography, Chu describes himself as the family's "academic black sheep" in his early years because he never took to academics like the rest of his family despite performing "adequately" in school.Steven Chu’s Nobel prize autobiography, 1997 Nonetheless, Chu earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Rochester in 1970, and went on to pursue a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California – Berkeley. After earning his doctorate in 1976, he continued at Berkeley as a postdoctoral fellow from 1976 to 1978.
In 1978 he joined the technical staff of the AT&T Bell Labs, where his early research focused on x-ray microscopy, energy transfer and the optical spectroscopy of positronium. In the fall of 1983, Chu was promoted to head the Quantum Electronics research department, moving to another branch of Bell Labs in Holmdel, N.J. It was in this role Chu and his team discovered the "optical molasses" that would win them a Nobel Prize in 1997. Their study was notable for its advancement of laser cooling technique and atomic study.
Chu remained at Bell Labs until 1987, when he left to assume a professorship in the physics and applied physics departments at Stanford University. He spent his first years at Stanford "fleshing out the details of polarization gradient cooling, the demonstration of the atomic fountain clock, and the development of atom interferometers and a new method of laser cooling based on Raman pulses was done at Stanford with my students as collaborators," he wrote in his autobiography.Steven Chu’s Nobel prize autiobiography, 1997
Chu continued the work on cooling and trapping atoms that began at Bell. 
He would later become the chair of the Stanford University physics department and branch out into polymer physics and biology. It was while he was a professor at Stanford in 1997 that his work at Bell would win him the Nobel.
In 2004 he left Stanford to become the director of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and a professor of physics and molecular and cellular biology at University of California – Berkeley, where he worked until President Obama named him Energy secretary in 2009.
The Issues
Much of Chu's tenure as Energy secretary has been focused on crafting a bolder, more science-driven strategy so the department can combat problems such as climate change.
Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy
In his bid to make bold moves to promote new innovation in energy reduction, Chu offered $151 million in funding to experimental projects to reduce energy consumption through the new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (Arpa-e).
Based on a Defense Department program which helped commercialize products like microchips, Arpa-e was created under President George W. Bush in 2007, but never funded until it received $400 million in the 2009 stimulus package. Department of Energy, "Transformational Energy Research Projects Win $151 Million in Funding," October 26, 2009
In October 2009 Chu offered more than a third of that money to 37 different projects. Though most of the projects were expected to fail, Chu said some could have "a transformative impact," the New York Times reported. Wald, Matthew D. The New York Times, "Energy Dept. Aid for Scientists on the Edge," October 25, 2009
In a press release, Chu called the program, "a crucial part of the new effort by the U.S. to spur the next Industrial Revolution in clean energy technologies, creating thousands of new jobs and helping cut carbon pollution." Department of Energy, "Transformational Energy Research Projects Win $151 Million in Funding," October 26, 2009
Chu chose Arun Majumdar, a former colleague at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to head the new agency.
Climate change
Chu has emerged as a voice for urgent action on climate change, and for putting a price on carbon to send a signal to the markets. "In the last five or six years I was following this as an interested citizen," he said in an interview with NPR.Joyce, Christopher, "Nobel Winner Chu to Win Top Energy Post," National Public Radio, Dec. 10, 2008 "And it became more and more apparent to me that the dangers, the potential risks of climate change were looking like they were more and more likely, and that ... as a scientist, a responsible scientist, you really have to think of what you can do to help with this problem."
He is a member of the Copenhagen Climate Council, an international effort to "create global awareness of the importance of the U.N. Climate Summit, in Copenhagen, in December 2009, and to ensure support and assistance to global decision makers when agreeing on a new climate treaty."Copenhagen Climate Council
"These are serious predictions," he said in an interview, discussing the latest climate science "It's prudent risk management. It's like saying, 'Your house will burn down in the next 10 years -- 50 percent probability. By the way, do you want fire insurance?'"DelVecchio, Rick, "A Warming World: As warnings grow more dire, Nobelist emerges as a leader,” The San Francisco Chronicle, March 5, 2007
Renewable energy
Chu has in recent years become an outspoken advocate for the need to move toward carbon-neutral energy sources, and the need for the technologies that can allow that. "I think political will is absolutely necessary," he said in a speech at the National Clean Energy Summit in August 2008. "But we need new technologies."Steven Chu Speech at National Clean Energy Summit, August 2008
His work at Lawrence Berkeley Lab has focused on creating advanced biofuels, artificial photosynthesis and solar technologies. Under his guidance, the lab has in recent years worked on creating photovoltaic cells that can be painted on -- called "solar paint" -- and on technology that can convert solar energy to liquid fuel by mimicking plant photosynthesis. The lab has also worked on improving energy efficiency. Their Helios Project has focused on developing methods to "store" solar energy in the form of renewable transportation fuels like algae and other biomass.Berkley Labs, Helios home page
In 2007, he forged a research pact between Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley lab, and energy giant BP, persuading BP to fund a $500 million biofuels institute at the school. The partnership sparked controversy both within the scientific community, with one student group staging a mock graduation ceremony with oil-stained diplomas.Dalton, Rex, "Berkely’s energy deal with BP Sparks Unease," Nature, Feb. 15, 2007 The lab also secured a $125 million grant from the Department of Energy to found the Joint BioEnergy Institute.Joint BioEnergy Institute Web site
Chu has also lobbied for the creation of an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy at the Energy Department to fund innovative, high-tech technologies to address the energy crisis.Dawson, Jim, "Politicians Skeptical about Need for ARPA-E," PhysicsToday,June 2006
He also co chaired a report for the United Nations’ InterAcademy Council that concludes that it is in "the best economic and societal interest of developing nations to 'leapfrog' past the wasteful energy trajectory followed by today’s industrialized nations" by focusing on renewables, energy efficiency, and renewable energy."Lighting the Way: Toward a Sustainable Energy Future," InterAcademy Council report, Oct. 22, 2007
He's also advocated for an interstate electricity transmission system, paid for by ratepayers, that would address the access problems with many renewable energy sources.Chu, Steven, "Coal is My Worst Nightmare," Wall Street Journal Environmental Capital blog, Dec. 11, 2008
Coal
Chu will likely need to address the issue of government funding for coal research because the DOE has been a major funder of projects to turn coal into liquid fuel as well as the controversial FutureGen plant, which was the pilot program in Illinois that was supposed to yield the nation's first zero-emissions, "clean coal" power plant. The Bush administration abandoned the project after the price tag ballooned to $1.8 billion, moving the money to other projects aimed to get carbon capture-and-sequestration technologies in place at other power plants. But supporters, including then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) sought to keep it alive.
Chu has not voiced a lot of support for coal, and according to reports, noted in a speech earlier this year that "coal is my worst nightmare." He has said that "clean coal" technologies would need to be developed to keep it in the energy portfolio, but emphasized, "It’s not guaranteed we have a solution for coal."Chu, Steven, "Coal is My Worst Nightmare," Wall Street Journal Environmental Capital blog, Dec. 11, 2008
Nuclear power
Chu's comments on nuclear power have drawn some attention, as he noted in a 2005 interview that he "absolutely" thinks the role of nuclear in the country's energy portfolio should be increased. But he's also cautious about expanding nuclear without better disposal methods. "The waste and proliferation issues still haven’t been completely solved," he has said.Chu, Steven, "Coal is My Worst Nightmare," Wall Street Journal Environmental Capital blog, Dec. 11, 2008
In order to make nuclear power a viable option, he says, "We've got to recycle the waste." There is not enough capacity at Yucca Mountain, the site on federal land in Nevada currently under consideration as a long-term storage facility, he has warned. "[I]f you take all the waste we have now from our civilian and military nuclear operations, we'd fill up Yucca Mountain. So we need three or four Yucca Mountains. Well, we don't have three or four Yucca Mountains."Powell, Bonnie Azab, "Growing energy: Berkeley Lab's Steve Chu on what termite guts have to do with global warming," UC Berkeley NewsCenter, Sept. 30, 2005 He's also expressed concerns about the long-term safety of storing the waste.
Nuclear weapons
Some have expressed concern that Chu has very little experience in dealing with the manufacture and maintenance of nuclear weapons. The largest portion of the DOE budget is set aside for maintaining the country's nuclear stocks.
The Network
Chu chose Arun Majumdar , a former colleague at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to head the new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy ( Arpa-e ).Footnotes
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