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Nobel laureate Chu to lead Lawrence Berkeley Lab

Nobel Laureate and Stanford University physicist Steven Chu is the new director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, operated by the University of California.

Regents of the university met in special session via teleconference Thursday to act on a recommendation from UC President Robert Dynes to name Chu as director. He will begin work as Lawrence Berkeley's sixth director on Aug. 1.

Chu replaces Charles Shank as Berkeley Lab director. Shank plans to return to teaching and research at UC Berkeley.

"Steve Chu brings to this position outstanding leadership qualities and a record of superior achievement in science," Dynes said. "His combination of skills is precisely what we need to keep the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the forefront of scientific excellence and to guide the lab wisely through the upcoming potential contract competition."

"The opportunity to lead Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at this time is an exciting prospect and a tremendous honor," said Chu. "The Berkeley Lab is a leader in scientific and technological discovery, and I look forward to working with the men and women at the laboratory, who are committed to preserving and enhancing that scientific excellence."

Laboratory Director G. Peter Nanos said of Chu's appointment: "The University of California's appointment of Steven Chu as the new director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory personifies the exemplary science that is the hallmark of the Berkeley lab. Having a scientist of Steven Chu's stature, a Nobel laureate in physics, professor and chair of the physics department at Stanford University, and former staff member at LBNL and Bell Laboratories, assures that LBNL will have great scientific leadership into the future."

Chu, who earned his doctorate from UC Berkeley, is currently the Theodore and Francis Geballe Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford, where he has been on the faculty since 1987.

In 1997, Chu, 55, was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light." Beginning in 1989, Chu expanded his research scope to include polymer physics and biophysics at the single-molecule level.

Chu chaired the physics department at Stanford from 1990 through 1993 and again from 1999 through 2001. He previously was at AT & T Bell Laboratories, where from 1983 through 1987 he was head of the quantum electronics research department.

To read a UC news release, click here.

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