Dr.
Paul C. W. Chu
Dr.
Paul C. W. Chu currently serves as Professor of Physics and
T. L. L.
Temple Chair of Science at the University of Houston, and as
President of
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He was born in
Hunan, China,
and received the B.S. degree from Cheng-Kung University in Taiwan.
After
service with the Nationalist Chinese Air Force, he earned the
M.S. degree
from Fordham University, Bronx NY, and completed the Ph.D. degree
at the
University of California at San Diego, all three degrees being
in Physics.
He has been working on Superconductivity, Magnetism, and Dielectrics. After doing industrial research with Bell Laboratories at
Murray Hill, New
Jersey, Dr. Chu held an academic appointment at Cleveland State
University.
He assumed his appointment at the University of Houston in
1979. He was
Director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University
of
Houston between 1987 and 2001. He had also served as consultant
and visiting
staff member at Bell Labs, Los Alamos National Lab, the Marshall
Space
Flight Center, Argonne National Lab, and DuPont at various
times.
He has been working on superconductivity since his days with
Bernd T.
Matthias at the University of California at San Diego. In January
1987, Dr.
Chu and his colleagues achieved stable superconductivity at
93 K (-180 ¢XC),
above the critical temperature of liquid nitrogen (-196 ¢XC).
They continue
to find new compounds with high transition temperatures. Recently,
they
again obtained stable superconductivity at a new record high
temperature of
164 K (-109 ¢XC) in another compound when compressed. Presently,
he is
actively engaged in the basic and applied research of high
temperature
superconductivity.
He has been elected as a member of the National Academy of
Sciences, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Chinese Academy
of Sciences
(Beijing), the Academia Sinica (Taipei), the Third World Academy
of
Sciences, and the Electromagnetic Academy, and is a Fellow
of the American
Physical Society and the Texas Academy of Sciences. He has
received honorary
doctorates from Northwestern University, Fordham University,
The Chinese
University of Hong Kong, Florida International University,
The State
University of New York at Farmingdale, Hong Kong Baptist University,
and
Whittier College. In 1990 he was selected the Best Researcher
in the U.S. by
US News and World Report.
He has received numerous awards, including the National Medal
of Science,
the International Prize for New Materials, the Comstock Award,
Texas
Instruments' Founders' Prize, the Leroy Randal Grumman Medal,
the World
Cultural Council Medal of Scientific Merit, the New York Academy
of
Sciences' Physical and Mathematical Science Award, the Bernd
Matthias Prize
(M2S-HTSC), the Award of Excellence in Scientific Accomplishments
(World
Congress on Superconductivity), the St. Martin de Porres Award,
the Esther
Farfel Award (University of Houston), and the John Fritz Medal
(American
Association of Engineering Societies). He serves on the editorial
boards of
various professional journals and is a member of the board
of directors of
the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors.
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