Conversations with History: Institute
of International Studies, UC Berkeley
This interview is part of the Institute's "Conversations
with History" series, and uses Internet technology to share with the public
Berkeley's distinction as a global forum for ideas.
Welcome to a Conversation with History.
I'm Harry Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies. Our guest today
is Steven Chu, who is a Nobel Laureate in Physics and Geballe Professor of
Physics at Stanford. He is the 2004 Hitchcock Lecturer on the Berkeley campus.
- Background ... influence of parents
... education ... family ... high school teachers ... doing experiments and
building models ... high school physics and math ... spatial intuition ...
college ... applying logic of math to writing
- Being a Scientist ... public understanding
of science ... Berkeley ... Professor Eugene Cummins ... prerequisites ...
driven curiosity ... doggedness ... internal drive ... colleagues' reaction
to new discoveries ... collaboration ... learning new fields
- Working at Bell Labs and at the University
... from grad student to professor ... opportunity to broaden knowledge at
Bell ... mandate to explore new ideas ... magical time ... built-in collaboration
- Nobel Research in Physics ... cooling
atoms using lasers ... creative moments ... the discovery ... implications
of research ... role of technology in research ... example of Charles Townes
- Bringing Physics to Biology ... playing
with a strand of DNA ... playing with polymers ... molecular individuation
... molecules' "moods" and Brownian motion ... looking beyond the
equilibrium model
- Conclusion ... random walk ... passion
... open mind
© Copyright 2004, Regents of the University
of California
Photos by Jane Scherr. Site questions: Email iis_webmgr at berkeley.edu.
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Chu 