President's International Advisory Council
Professor Paul Ching-Wu Chu
Former Member, KAUST International Advisory Council
Executive Director of the Texas Center of Superconductivity, University of Houston
T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science, University of Houston
Professor Paul C. W. Chu is the President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He is also the Executive Director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity and the T. L. L. Temple Chair of Science at the University of Houston. He was born in Hunan, China, and received his bachelor's of science degree from Cheng-Kung University in Taiwan, a master's degree from Fordham University NY, and a doctorate from the University of California at San Diego, all in physics.
Professor Chu had conducted industrial research at Bell Laboratories at Murray Hill, New Jersey before he held academic appointments at Cleveland State University and the University of Houston. He has also served at various time as advisor, consultant and visiting staff member at various national and industrial laboratories.
After assuming the presidency of HKUST in 2001, Professor Chu has set out to further raise the profile and enhance the impact of the University nationally and internationally. In June 2005, Prof Chu launched the HKUST Strategic Plan 2005-2020 which envisions the development of HKUST into one of the world’s academic leaders in selected academic fields, He has also initiated the establishment of the Institute for Advanced Study at HKUST which is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge to meet the great challenges of the 21st century and to become a platform for future development of science, technology, education and economy for Hong Kong, China and beyond.
Professor Chu has been instrumental in expanding HKUST’s partnership with the Government and the region’s industries. Several major institutes have been established under the sponsorship of the Government and the private sector, with the R&D Center for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, a $400 million initiative, being the latest example of the successful partnership.
In January 1987, he and his colleagues achieved stable superconductivity at 93 K (-180ºC) above the critical temperature of liquid nitrogen (-196ºC), a major advancement in modern science. Later, they again obtained stable superconductivity at a new record high temperature of 164 K (-109ºC) in another compound when it was compressed. Professor Chu remains actively engaged in the basic and applied research of high temperature superconducting and related materials and technologies.
He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing), the Academia Sinica (Taipei), the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, and the Russian Academy of Engineering, and he was awarded honorary degrees from several universities worldwide. In 2007, he was appointed as a Member of the U.S. President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science, responsible for the selection of recipients for this top scientific honor in the U.S.
Professor Chu has received numerous awards, including the National Medal of Science, the International Prize for New Materials, the Comstock Award, the Texas Instruments’ Founders’ Prize, the John Fritz Medal, and the Freedoms Foundation National Award. He also serves on the editorial boards of various professional journals. He is a member of the board of directors of the Council on Superconductivity for American Competitiveness and a member of the Steering Committee on Innovation and Technology of Hong Kong.