Meet Your Secretary of Energy: Steven Chu
“Coal is my worst nightmare”
Nominated by President Barack Obama, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate, Dr. Steven Chu assumed office as Secretary of Energy on January 21, 2009. The way that America thinks about energy is undergoing a drastic evolution! Reflecting this, the recently appointed Secretary of Energy is like no other in history. Not only is he a strong advocate for energy conservation and efficiency, Dr. Steven Chu is also a leader in the innovation of clean energy technology.
President Obama said on December 15, 2008,
“The future of our economy and national security is inextricably linked to one challenge: energy… Steven has blazed new trails as a scientist, teacher, and administrator, and has recently led the Berkeley National Laboratory in pursuit of new alternative and renewable energies. He is uniquely suited to be our next Secretary of Energy as we make this pursuit a guiding purpose of the Department of Energy, as well as a national mission.”
Dr. Steven Chu has a PhD in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as honorary degrees from 10 separate Universities. Dr. Steven Chu is also former professor at Stanford University and served as the Chair of its Physics Department.
As a scientist in experimental physics (1997), Steven Chu won the Nobel Prize for his research in the “Cooling and Trapping of Atoms with Laser Light” done at Bell Labs. In August of 2004, Chu was appointed as the director of a US Department of Energy National Laboratory, and joined UC Berkeley’s Department of Physics and Department of Molecular Cell Biology. There he spearheaded an initiative to develop methods of harnessing solar power as a source of renewable energy for transportation.
Helios Project~ an effort to develop methods to “store” solar energy in the form of renewable transportation fuel. Some approaches include the generation of biofuels from biomass, biofuels from algae, and the direct conversion of water and carbon dioxide to fuels by the use of solar energy.
