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Steven Chu

Steven Chu (born February 28, 1948)[2] is an American physicist. He was the 12th United States Secretary of Energy from 2009 to 2013. Chu is known for his research at Bell Labs in cooling and trapping of atoms with laser light, which won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997, along with his scientific colleagues Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William Daniel Phillips.[2]

Steven Chu
Steven Chu official DOE portrait.jpg
12th United States Secretary of Energy
In office
January 21, 2009 – April 22, 2013
PresidentBarack Obama
DeputyDaniel Poneman
Preceded bySamuel Bodman
Succeeded byErnest Moniz
Personal details
Born (1948-02-28) February 28, 1948 (age 76)
St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Political partyDemocratic Party[1]
Alma materUniversity of Rochester
University of California, Berkeley
Professionphysicist
WebsiteU.S. Secretary of Energy website

Chu is the first Nobel Prize winner and the second Chinese American to hold a post in the United States Cabinet.[3][4] Before becoming the United States Secretary of Energy, he was a professor of physics and molecular and cellular biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was also the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.[5]

Before teaching at Berkeley, he was a professor of physics at Stanford University. He has argued for more research into alternative energy and nuclear power. He thinks the world should shift away from fossil fuels to help with climate change.[6][7][8] For example, he discusses a global "glucose economy". This is a form of a low-carbon economy, in which glucose from tropical plants is shipped around like oil is today.[9]

Early life

Chu[10] was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He has ancestry from Taicang, Jiangsu.[11] He attended and graduated from Garden City High School.[12] He received both a B.A. in mathematics and a B.S. in physics in 1970 from the University of Rochester. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1976.

Career

He wrote a paper on gravitational redshift published in Nature (463, 926–929) in Feb 2010[13] and a second one co-authored in July 2010.[14][15]

Under his leadership in 2010 the Department of Energy updated the water usage regulations on toilets and showers.[16]

Secretary of Energy

 
Steven Chu meeting with President Barack Obama on February 5, 2009.

His nomination to be Secretary of Energy was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on January 20, 2009.[17] On January 21, 2009, Chu was sworn in as Secretary of Energy in the Barack Obama administration.

In March 2011 Chu said that federal regulators should not delay approving licenses for construction for planned U.S. nuclear power plants because of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. "I think those things can proceed", Chu told reporters on Capital Hill, referring to construction license applications pending at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.[18]

In August 2011, Chu praised an advisory panel’s report on curbing the environmental risks of natural-gas development. Chu responded to the panel’s report on hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing breaks up rock to get more oil and gas out of the ground. The report recommendations include: greater data collection of air and water data, “rigorous” air pollution standards and mandatory disclosure of chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process. “The report ... recommends a range of tools for implementing these measures, including regulation, continuous improvement in best practices by industry, and ongoing research and development,” Chu said in a statement. “I will be working closely with my colleagues in the Administration to review the recommendations and to chart a path for continued development of this vital energy resource in a safe manner,” he added.[19]

Republicans in Congress have accused Chu for changing a US$535 million federal loan to Solyndra, an energy company. When the company went bankrupt in 2011, the government lost the money. A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee asked Chu in 2011 about the loan.[20][21][22]

Steven Chu Media

  • Steven Chu, 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics

  • Chu with his medal as a Pontifical Academician, 2018

  • Chu (right) with IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol (middle) and Oliver Inderwildi (left) at the Oxford Union, 2010

References

  1. ↑ "Polifiact.com".
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tore Frängsmyr, ed. (1998). "Steven Chu Autobiography". The Nobel Prizes 1997. Les Prix Nobel. Stockholm: The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-06-25.
  3. ↑ Jake Tapper (2008-12-11). "A Nobel Prize Winner in the Cabinet". ABC News. Retrieved 2009-03-23.
  4. ↑ Sky Canaves (2009-02-26). Commerce Nominee a Locke In China. The Wall Street Journal. http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2009/02/26/commerce-nominee-a-locke-in-china/. Retrieved 2009-03-23. 
  5. ↑ "Dr. Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy". United States Department of Energy. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
  6. ↑ H. Josef Hebert (2008-12-08). Energy secretary pick argues for new fuel sources. Associated Press. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008492740_apchuprofile.html. Retrieved 2010-11-09. 
  7. ↑ Sarah Jane Tribble, 'Nuclear: Dark horse energy alternative,' Oakland Tribune, 2007-06-18. [1] Archived 2013-08-29 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ Directors of DOE National Laboratories (August 2008). "A Sustainable Energy Future: The Essential Role of Nuclear Energy" (PDF). Department of Energy. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-30. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
  9. ↑ A scientist who is on tap, on top. St. Petersberg Times. July 26, 2009. http://www.tampabay.com/news/perspective/article1020822.ece. Retrieved January 10, 2010. 
  10. ↑ Bert Eljera (1997-10-23). Stanford Professor Steven Chu graduates to the rank of Nobel laureate. AsianWeek. http://asianweek.com/102397/cover_story.html. Retrieved 2013-12-31. 
  11. ↑ Brendan John Worrell (2009-07-15). Steven Chu: US ready to lead on climate change. ChinaDaily. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-07/15/content_8432285.htm. Retrieved 2013-12-31. 
  12. ↑ Kathleen Kerr (2008-07-16). "They Began Here". Newsday. Archived from the original on 2007-07-03. Retrieved 2013-12-31.
  13. ↑ A precision measurement of the gravitational redshift by the interference of matter waves Nature 18-Feb-2010. According to Nature he worked on this "during nights, weekends and on planes - after putting in 70-80 hours a week as energy secretary" (Nature 463 p867)
  14. ↑ Borestein, Seth (2010-07-07). "Energy secretary's hobby is nano science". MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38130342/ns/technology_and_science-science/. Retrieved 2010-07-12. 
  15. ↑ Pertsinidis, Alexandros; Zhang, Yunxiang; Chu, Steven (2010). "Subnanometre single-molecule localization, registration and distance measurements". Nature. advance. online publication (7306): 647–51. Bibcode:2010Natur.466..647P. doi:10.1038/nature09163. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 20613725. S2CID 205221226.
  16. ↑ "Time for a Shower (Before It's Too Late) - The Weekly Standard". Archived from the original on 2012-01-05. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
  17. ↑ Nicholas Johnston (2009-01-20). Senate Confirms Seven Obama Nominees, Delays Clinton. Bloomberg L.P.. https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFtD02yqOtMw. Retrieved 2009-01-25. 
  18. ↑ "Japan crisis should not delay new U.S. reactors: Chu". Reuters. 2011-03-15. https://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/15/us-usa-nuclear-licenses-idUSTRE72E6PM20110315. Retrieved 2017-08-31. 
  19. ↑ "Chu vows to 'chart a path' for safe gas drilling". Archived from the original on 2012-07-24. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
  20. ↑ http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-11-20/opinion/30423943_1_ceo-brian-harrison-solyndra-loan-steven-chu[dead link]
  21. ↑ Wald, Matthew L. (16 November 2011). Energy Secretary Steven Chu to Defend Solyndra Loan to Congress. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/us/politics/energy-secretary-stephen-chu-to-defend-solyndra-loan-to-congress.html. 
  22. ↑ Samuelsohn, Darren. "GOP grills Chu on Solyndra". POLITICO.

Other websites

Political offices
Preceded by
Samuel Bodman 		United States Secretary of Energy
2009–2013 		Succeeded by
Daniel Poneman
Acting
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