Nobel Prize co-recipient will speak at URI

KINGSTON, R.I. -- April 15, 1999 -- The scientist who shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light will be the featured speaker for the University of Rhode Island,s annual Cruickshank Lecture Steven Chu, professor of physics and applied physics at Stanford University will discuss "Holding onto atoms and molecules with lasers" on Wednesday, April 28 at 7:45 p.m. in the Barry Marks Auditorium, Chafee Social Science Center on URI,s Kingston Campus. Free and open to the public, Chu,s talk will provide an introduction to the science of laser cooling and trapping of atoms and biomolecules. Chu will also meet with students and faculty on Thursday, April 29, at 4 p.m., for a special Physics Colloquium.

Chu,s research interests and accomplishments are extremely broad, and currently include the use of laser and AFM-based tools in the study of individual biological molecules, in addition to more fundamental studies in physics. His studies have had a significant impact not only in physics, but in biology, chemistry, areas of engineering, and other fields as well.

The Nobel Prize was the latest in a long list of awards that Chu has received honoring his scientific achievements. He was a 1996 Guggenhein fellow; received the Science for art Prize and Humboldt Senior Scientist Award in 1995; was named a member of the Academia Sinica in 1994, the National Academy of Sciences in 1993, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992; and has received numerous other international honors and awards.

Chu graduated from the University of Rochester in 1970 and received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1976. In 1976-78 he was a postdoctoral fellow at U.C. Berkeley. For four years he was head of the Quantum Electronic Department of AT&T Bell Laboratories before becoming a professor at Stanford University in 1987.

This annual lecture series is supported through an endowment by the Gordon Research Conferences in honor of their Director Emeritus, Alexander M. Cruickshank. This year,s lecture is sponsored by the URI Foundation and the URI Physics Department. For more information on meeting with Chu please contact, Jan Northby at 874-2042 or 874-2074.

For more Information: Jhodi Redlich, 874-2116