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Energy Engagement Programs is a cross-campus effort of the Precourt Institute for Energy.

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Steven Chu

Professor, Energy Science & Engineering, of Molecular & Cellular Physiology, and of Physics, Stanford University

Steven Chu is a professor of physics and the William R. Kenan, Jr. professor of Molecular & Cellular Physiology in the Medical School at Stanford University. He is the president-elect of the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  He shares a Nobel Prize in Physics for work on cooling and trapping atoms with laser light. He has published over 280 papers in atomic and polymer physics, biophysics, biology, batteries, and other energy technologies.  He holds 14 patents, and an additional 6 patent applications have been filed in the last 2 years. Dr. Chu was the 12th U.S. Secretary of Energy from January 2009 until the end of April 2013. As the first scientist to hold a Cabinet position and the longest-serving Energy Secretary, he recruited outstanding scientists and engineers into the Department of Energy. He began several initiatives including ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy), the Energy Innovation Hubs, and was personally tasked by President Obama to assist BP in stopping the Deepwater Horizon oil leak.