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2000 › C. W. Paul Chu
22nd Farfel Recipient
Department of Physics
T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science
College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Named Best Researcher in the United States
by US News and World Report in 1990, Professor C.W. “Paul”
Chu has continued his award winning research as a professor of physics,
director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity, and the T.L.L.
Temple Chair of Science, since joining the faculty in 1979. In 1988,
he received a National Medal of Science for leading a team of scientists
in the discovery of high temperature superconductivity.
Beginning in the summer of 2001, Chu will
serve as president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
He will continue to serve the University of Houston as the Temple
Chair and lead his research program at the Texas Center for Superconductivity.
“When I started my academic career
thirty years ago, I was told that there were three missions of professors:
teaching, research and service,” he said. “I think as
a professor my ultimate duty is to teach our students and also to
serve our local and global communities. I strongly believe that
without research, a university's knowledge will become stale, and
teaching and service will become less effective.”
In 2000, Chu visited Washington, D.C.,
to contribute a sample of his groundbreaking research in the field
of high temperature superconductivity to the National Millennium
Time Capsule Project. Chu's work has resulted in the publication
of more than 460 papers in referred journals, as well as entries
on lasers and superconductivity for Funk and Wagnall encyclopedias.
Born in Hunan, China, he received his
B.S. degree from Cheng-Kung University in Taiwan. After service
with the Nationalist Chinese Air Force, he earned a M.S. degree
from Fordham University, Bronx, N.Y., and completed his Ph.D. at
the University of California at San Diego -- all three degrees in
physics.
Chu is the recipient of more than a dozen
honorary professorships and doctorates and awards, and belongs to
a host of national and international societies and organizations.
He believes the unique dynamics between UH and the city of Houston
has enabled him to successfully do the things he loves most -- teach
and study superconductivity.
“Nowhere else in the world can you
find such support,” he said.
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