Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUMMonday, November 2, 1998 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 AuditoriumPaul Chu"High Temperature Superconductors"ABSTRACT -- High temperature superconductivity
has been considered to be one of the most exciting discoveries in modern
physics. During the 12 years after its discovery, great progress
has been made in all areas of high temperature superconductivity science
and technology. More than 150 high temperature superconducting compounds
have been found with a record transition temperature of 134K at ambient
and 164K under pressure, a temperature that can be readily achieved in
space by passive cooling. Theoretical models have been proposed to
account for some of the observations made on these compounds, and prototype
devices have been constructed from these compounds and tested successfully.
In spite of the impressive progress made, no comprehensive microscopic
theory exists, and commercialization remains beyond our reach. In
this presentation, I shall review some of the advancements achieved and
point out some of the challenges ahead in high temperature superconductivity
science and technology.
SPEAKER: Paul C. W.
Chu is the T. L. L. Temple Chair of Science, Professor of Physics, and
Director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of
Houston. He received his BS degree from Cheng-Kung University in
Taiwan, his MS degree from Fordham University in New York, and his Ph.D.
degree from the University of California at San Diego. In early January
1987, Chu's research group detected superconductivity at about -297 °F,
above the liquid nitrogen temperature (-321 °F), in an impure and unstable
sample. Two weeks later, he, his former student Mau-Kuen Wu, and
their colleagues achieved stable superconductivity at -270 °F.
Later, in 1993, they again observed stable superconductivity under pressure
at a new record-high temperature of -164 °F. Chu's research interests
include superconductivity, magnetism, and dielectrics. Chu has received
numerous awards, including the National Medal of Science, the International
Prize for New Materials, the Comstock Award, Texas Instruments' Founders'
Prize, and the Bernd Matthias Prize. He is a member of the National
Academy of Sciences; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Chinese
Academy of Sciences in Beijing, People's Republic of China; the Academia
Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China; and the Third World Academy
of Sciences. He has received honorary doctorates from a dozen universities.
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