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June 18, 2004 |
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Lawrence Berkeley Lab Names New Director
Stanford physics professor Steven Chu will take over in August |
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JEFF JOHNSON |
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Steven Chu
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Nobel Laureate and Stanford University physics professor Steven Chu has been named the new director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Chu will be the sixth director of the 70-year-old lab when he takes over on Aug. 1.
The University of California manages the facility for the Department of Energy, and UC President Robert C. Dynes announced Chu’s selection as the next director on June 17. Dyne stressed Chu’s “leadership qualitites and record of superior achievement in science. His combination of skills is precisely what we need to keep the lab at the forefront of scientific excellence and to guide the lab wisely through the upcoming potential contract competition.”
Dynes was referring to the fact that DOE will open to competitive bids this year the contract to run the lab, which is near the UC Berkeley campus. So far, however, it is unclear if any organization will challenge the UC contract. DOE will select a manager by January 2005.
Chu will take over from the current director, Charles Shank, who announced in February his intention to return to teaching. This marks the second time Chu, 55, has replaced Shank. At AT&T Bell Laboratories, where both Shank and Chu worked in the 1980s, Chu took over leadership of the Electronics Research Laboratory from Shank when he left.
Chu was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 for developing methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light. Over the past decade, much of his work has focused on polymer physics and biophysics at the single-molecule level. Chu has been a Stanford professor since 1987 and has twice chaired the physics department.
He is the first Asian-American to lead a national laboratory, but he played down the significance when asked by reporters, noting only the major science contributions made by many first- and second-generation immigrants to the U.S.
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Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2004 |
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