Former United States Secretary of Energy and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics 1997, Steven Chu has devoted a significant part of his recent scientific career in search for new solutions to our energy and climate challenges.

Chu is currently professor of physics, professor of molecular and cellular physiology, and professor of energy science and engineering at Stanford University, California. At Bell Labs, he laser cooled and optically trapped atoms and particles. At Stanford, he developed the theory of laser cooling of multilevel atoms (also developed independently by Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and Jean Dalibard) and demonstrated the first atomic fountain clock/atom interferometer. For this work, he was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics 1997.

Since 2000, he devoted an increasing portion of his scientific career in search for new solutions to our energy and climate challenges. He was the Secretary of Energy of President Obama from 2009 until 2013. As the first scientist to hold a cabinet position in the United States, he was tasked by President Obama to assist BP in stopping the Deepwater Horizon oil leak.

His current research includes new approaches to EV and utility-scale batteries and carbon capture. He is also developing and applying new methods in molecular and cellular biology, and in photoacoustic and ultrasound medical imaging.

More about Steven Chu and the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics