Prof. Chu is a Chinese-American physicist specializing in superconductivity, magnetism, and dielectrics. He is currently Professor of Physics, T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science, and Founding Director and Chief Scientist of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TCSUH); Honorary Chancellor of the Taiwan Comprehensive University System; and President Emeritus and University Professor Emeritus of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

In 1968, Prof. Chu received his Ph.D. degree at the University of California at San Diego in Physics. After two years of performing industrial research with Bell Laboratories at Murray Hill, New Jersey, Prof. Chu was appointed assistant professor of physics at Cleveland State University in 1970, and subsequently promoted to associate professor and professor of physics in 1973 and 1975, respectively. From 1979 till now, Prof. Chu served at University of Houston. He also has served as a consultant and visiting staff member at Bell Laboratories, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, the Marshall Space Flight Center, Argonne National Laboratory, and DuPont at various times.

Prof. Chu received numerous awards and honors for his outstanding works, including the National Medal of Science, the International Prize for New Materials, the Comstock Award, Texas Instruments’ Founders’ Prize, the World Cultural Council Medal of Scientific Merit, the New York Academy of Sciences’ Physical and Mathematical Science Award, the Ettore Majorana – Erice – Science for Peace Prize, and the IEEE Council on Superconductivity Max Swerdlow Award.

Prof. He was selected the Best Researcher in the U.S. by U.S. News and World Report in 1990, and he was named one of the 20th Century’s 100 Most Influential People in Gas and Electricity in Century of Power (Hart Energy Markets) in 2000.

Prof. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Academia Sinica, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, and the Russian Academy of Engineering (foreign member).