Our Members

Prof Paul C W CHU

Elected as ASHK Founding Member in 2015

 

B.S. (NCKU); M.S. (Fordham); Ph.D. (UCSD); Member: U.S. National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing), Academia Sinica (Taipei), Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, Russian Academy of Engineering, The World Academy of Sciences, The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas; Fellow: National Academy of Inventors, Hong Kong Institution of Science, Texas Academy of Sciences; Founding Member: The Hong Kong Academy of Sciences

Brief Introduction

Professor of Physics

T. L. L. Temple Chair of Science

Founding Director and Chief Scientist, Texas Center for Superconductivity

University of Houston

Prof Paul C W Chu 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 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He was born in Hunan, China, and received the B.S. degree from Cheng-Kung University in Taiwan, the M.S. degree from Fordham University, Bronx NY, and the Ph.D. degree at the University of California at San Diego, all in Physics.

After doing industrial research at Bell Laboratories at Murray Hill, New Jersey, Prof Chu held an academic appointment at Cleveland State University. He assumed his appointment at the University of Houston in 1979. He has established several research centers, including the Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center (in partnership with NASA) and TCSUH. He served as the first Director of TCSUH between 1987 and 2001 and President of HKUST between 2001 and 2009. He had also served as consultant and visiting staff member at Bell Labs, Los Alamos National Lab, the Marshall Space Flight Center, Argonne National Lab, and DuPont at various times.

He has been working on Superconductivity, Magnetism, and Dielectrics. In January 1987, Prof Chu and his colleagues achieved stable superconductivity at 93 K (-180 °C), above the critical temperature of liquid nitrogen (-196 °C). They continue to discover new compounds with high transition temperatures and obtained stable superconductivity at a new record high temperature of 164 K (-109 °C) in another compound when compressed in 1993. Presently, he is actively engaged in the basic and applied research of high temperature superconductivity. His work has resulted in the publication of more than 660 papers in refereed journals.

He has received honorary doctorates from Northwestern University, Fordham University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Florida International University, the State University of New York at Farmingdale, Hong Kong Baptist University, Providence University, University of Macau, Loughborough University, and Whittier College. In 1990 he was selected the Best Researcher in the U.S. by US News and World Report and in 2000 he was named one of the 20th Century’s 100 Most Influential People in Gas and Electricity in Century of Power (Hart Energy Markets).

He has received numerous awards, including the National Medal of Science, the International Prize for New Materials, the Comstock Award, Texas Instruments’ Founders’ Prize, the Leroy Randal Grumman Medal, the World Cultural Council Medal of Scientific Merit, the New York Academy of Sciences’ Physical and Mathematical Science Award, the Bernd Matthias Prize, the St. Martin de Porres Award, the Esther Farfel Award, the John Fritz Medal, the Ettore Majorana - Erice - Science for Peace Prize, and the IEEE Council on Superconductivity Max Swerdlow Award for Sustained Service to the Applied Superconductivity Community.

He serves on the editorial boards of various professional journals and is a member of the board of directors of the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. He has served on numerous committees in the U.S., China, Taiwan, and elsewhere, including the President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science (2007-2009); the National Research Council’s Committee on Research Universities (2010-2011) and Committee on Globalization of Science and Technology: Opportunities and Challenges for the Department of Defense (2013-2014); and the Intelligence Science and Technology Experts Group of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2015-2019). 

 

Website of Prof Paul Chu at University of Houston

December 2021

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