Tue, Aug 22, 2000 page4

• Growing up with a love of science

  Highly respected for key research he did into the interaction of atoms with laser light, Nobel laureate Steven Chu has physics in his blood. As staff reporter Lin Mei-chun discovered, he now feels it's his duty to `give back to society' and go back to teaching

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  Taipei Times: While you were growing up, were you under a lot of pressure from your parents to perform well at school? How did your family and education affect you?

  Steven Chu: My parents always wanted me to do well at school. Many Chinese parents put pressure on children, maybe too much pressure. But ... once you leave the family, you just sit back and relax as soon as you get to college.

  With me it was the opposite. I did my work [when I was a child]. I was reasonably good, but it was not until college that I really began to apply myself.

  

  PHOTO: KUO YI-CHUN, LIBERTY TIMES

  I wanted to do well at school because it was for myself. My parents weren't there to tell me to work hard. Once you are out on your own, you are working for yourself. You are not working to please your parents or to get good grades.

  [If you are], then it becomes very empty. I was working because I wanted to learn. It was not because I wanted to get an `A' grade; I knew I was going to get an `A.' That didn't matter. I went beyond what was required because [studying] started getting to be fun.

  One develops values from [one's] family, mainly through parents. My parents taught me the value of education.

  They wanted me to be well-educated and working in some profession doing some intellectual service ... not just making money. My family did not tell me to be rich, but to be a scholar.

  However, in the end it is the children who have to decide on their own about what they want. Parents can introduce children to certain things, but they can't force you to think.

  Growing up involves the combination of inheritance and environment.

  Good parents can give you the opportunity and show you their sense of values, but it is the children who have to decide on their own, eventually.

  TT: Out of the many different fields of science to study, what made you choose physics?

  Chu: There is some purity about physics. When you get the right answers, you know you have the right answers.

  You do not have to memorize a lot of things, all you have to do is to understand it, and it all seems very natural [to me]. But it takes a lot of work to understand it, so there is a feeling of accomplishment.

  I like the basic philosophy of how one gains knowledge in physics more than any other science. I chose physics as an intellectual pursuit. It is not a matter of opinion.

  It is something where many people can add to the base of knowledge. After you have an answer, it is clear whether it is correct or it is nonsense. There is very little politics associated with this.

  Any physical theory is always open to challenges, and that is a wonderful aspect of science. If somebody proposes something and you don't believe they are right, then you can demand they show you proof.

  An accurate theory can survive all attacks and challenges. But an attack against a theory is not the same as an attack against the person who proposed the theory; it is about examining the ideas.

  TT: What made you go back to teaching after being a researcher at the Bell Laboratories (a physics laboratory in New Jersey) for nine years? Do you enjoy teaching and how do you encourage your students?

  Chu: I always thought I would go back to being a professor. After nine years at Bell Labs, I felt it was my duty to give back to society.

  When I was younger, I appreciated what it was like to be nurtured by teachers and taken under the wing of senior scientists.

  I am blessed to have had excellent students at Stanford; they taught me a lot. I teach the right way to approach science and in return they teach me facts. This is a symbiotic relationship.

  What I enjoy the most is the most intimate type of teaching -- working with students at the laboratory.

  You teach them things they can't find in textbooks and in many respects this is the most valuable way of teaching -- by showing your reasoning process, how you react to new circumstances and how you tackle problems. Teaching is not just reciting stuff from textbooks.

  One nice thing about American culture is that my students are free to correct me when I am wrong.

  I am not an authoritarian figure. Correcting me does not mean they are being disrespectful. You just look and find what the real answer is.

  TT: Presently Taiwan is carrying out a series of educational reforms and one of the primary goals is to abolish the nation's cumbersome college entrance exam system. However, the new policies still draw criticism. As an educator, do you have any suggestions?

  Chu: I think the perception that needs to be altered in Taiwan is that going to good colleges does not mean your life is made. Nor is life over if you attend just a mediocre school.

  Asian education systems focus too much on memorization; creativity is therefore not properly stimulated.

  Besides, far too much stress is put on appearance, and too little on substance. [You should know that] what you really understand is very different from what your credentials are.

  Looking good on paper is very different from really doing well. Learning to do well in exams is very different from learning because you are interested.
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