stanford physicist and
Nobel laureate Steven Chu has crossed the Bay to become
director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Funded by the Department of Energy, the lab conducts
unclassified research across a wide range of scientific
disciplines, including fundamental studies of the universe,
quantitative biology, nanoscience, new energy systems
and environmental solutions. Chu, 56, earned his doctorate
at Cal, worked at Bell Laboratories and joined the Stanford
faculty in 1987. Ten years later he shared the Nobel
Prize in physics for his work on methods to cool and
trap atoms with laser light. At Berkeley Lab, he will
oversee an operation with 4,000 employees and a budget
of $521 million.
