Steven Chu (
On the contrary, he is suave, well dressed and has what many say is a great sense of humor.
During a five-hour car ride back to Taipei from Hsitou (
PHOTO: KUO YI-CHUN, LIBERTY TIMES
It was his warm personality that made him such a popular figure at the camp. He's so amiable that few would think of him as one of the world's most renowned scientists.
"I am glad to be here at the camp. It is not important if the students couldn't understand all I said during the lectures. More important is that I could influence them and get them excited about science and discovery. It would be worthwhile even I could just influence one or two [students]," he said.
Born in the US to well-educated Chinese parents, Chu grew up in an illustrious family of accomplished scholars and respected scientists.
It was this family background, he said, that had encouraged him, since childhood, to pursue a career in science.
According to Chu, his academic performance during his younger years was rather lackluster in comparison to that of his two outstandingly brilliant brothers.
As a consequence, he explained, he only gained admission to a "good second-choice school," which was in fact the University of Rochester.
"My parents thought I was a loser," said the Nobel Prize winner, bursting into laughter.
"But it was good I went there because I got used to being the best student. Once you get a taste of that, it is a nice feeling. [Things] have been pretty smooth from that time onwards."
Chu shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 with two other physicists for developing methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.
"The new methods of investigation have contributed greatly to increasing our knowledge of the interplay between radiation and matter," according to a citation from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1997.
"[Learning physics] is a wonderful way of gaining knowledge. I know perhaps 100 years after I die, people will not remember me," he said.
"But I know I've made some small contribution that added to everybody else's small contribution. It is this way of adding to the knowledge pool and how people build upon each other's knowledge that I find very appealing," he said.
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