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Dr. Paul Ching-Wu Chu has gained worldwide renown for his discoveries in superconductivity the cornerstone of the MRI technology used in Aurora breast-imaging systems. He is currently the President of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology one of the fastest growing research universities in the Pacific Rim and also serves as T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science, Professor of Physics and Executive Director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston. Professor Chu received his B.S. degree in physics from Cheng-Kung University in Taiwan, his M.S. degree in physics from Fordham University in New York, and his Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of California at San Diego. Following two years of research at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ, Dr. Chu was appointed Assistant Professor of Physics at Cleveland State University in 1970, where he was promoted to Professor of Physics in 1975. He joined the University of Houston as Professor of Physics in 1979. At the University of Houston, Dr. Chu carried out research on superconductivity, the phenomenon in which electrical resistance in certain materials completely disappears at extremely low temperatures. In 1987, he and his team made an epic breakthrough: Using a special ceramic material, they achieved stable superconductivity at a relatively high temperature (above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen). This finding ushered in the age of high-temperature superconductivity, which has made commercial use of superconductivity much more feasible. Dr. Chu’s discovery has been called one of the most significant advances in all of modern physics. He has been honored with some of the world’s most prestigious scientific awards including the U.S. National Medal of Science, the Bernd Matthias Prize, and John Fritz Medal, which he shares with such luminaries as Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison and Enrico Fermi. | 