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After obtaining his doctorate he remained at Berkeley as a [[postdoctoral researcher]] for two years before joining [[Bell Labs]], where he and his several co-workers carried out his Nobel Prize-winning [[laser cooling]] work. He left Bell Labs and became a professor of physics at [[Stanford University]] in 1987,<ref name="Nobel" /> serving as the chair of its Physics Department from 1990 to 1993 and from 1999 to 2001. At Stanford, Chu and three others initiated the Bio-X program, which focuses on interdisciplinary research in biology and medicine,<ref name="BioX">{{cite web|url=http://biox.stanford.edu/about/index.html|title=About Bio-X|publisher=[[Stanford University]]|access-date=2009-02-27}}</ref> and played a key role in securing the funding for the [[Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology]].<ref name="chu-77">{{cite web|title=Steven Chu named director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory|url=http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2004/july7/chu-77.html|publisher=Stanford News Service|date=2004-06-21|access-date=2009-02-24}}</ref> In August 2004, Chu was appointed as the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a [[United States Department of Energy National Laboratories|U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratory]], and joined UC Berkeley's Department of Physics and Department of Molecular and Cell Biology.<ref name="BerkeleyNews">{{cite news|title=Obama chooses Nobelist Steven Chu as secretary of energy|url=http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/12/15_obama.shtml|author=Robert Sanders|publisher=[[University of California, Berkeley]]|date=2008-12-15|access-date=2009-03-26}}</ref> Under Chu's leadership, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was a center of research into [[biofuel]]s and [[solar energy]].<ref name="Hebert" /> He spearheaded the laboratory's Helios project, an initiative to develop methods of harnessing solar power as a source of [[renewable energy]] for transportation.<ref name="BerkeleyNews" />[[File:Steven Chu NSF.jpg|thumb|Steven Chu lecturing|left]]Chu's early research focused on [[atomic physics]] by developing [[laser cooling]] techniques and the [[magneto-optical trap]]ping of atoms using [[lasers]]. He and his co-workers at Bell Labs developed a way to cool atoms by employing six laser beams opposed in pairs and arranged in three directions at right angles to each other. Trapping atoms with this method allows scientists to study individual atoms with great accuracy. Additionally, the technique can be used to construct an [[atomic clock]] with great precision.<ref name="NobelPhys">{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1997/press.html|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1997|publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]]|date=1997-10-15|access-date=2009-03-13}}</ref>
At Stanford, Chu's research interests expanded into [[biophysics|biological physics]] and [[polymer physics]] at the [[single-molecule experiment|single-molecule level]]. He studied [[enzyme]] activity and [[Protein folding|protein and RNA folding]] using techniques like [[fluorescence resonance energy transfer]], [[atomic force microscopy]], and [[optical tweezers]]. His [[polymer physics]] research used individual [[DNA]] molecules to study polymer dynamics and their [[phase transitions]]. He continued researching atomic physics as well and developed new methods of laser cooling and trapping.<ref name="BerkeleyBio">{{cite web|url=http://www.physics.berkeley.edu/research/faculty/chu.html|title=Steven Chu|publisher=[[University of California, Berkeley]]|access-date=2009-03-26|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315153306/http://physics.berkeley.edu/research/faculty/chu.html|archive-date=2009-03-15}}</ref>
==Honors and awards==
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