Bio-sketch for Professor Charles Chiu (6-16-05)

In 1961 Dr. Chiu received his B. Sc. with summa cum laude from Seattle Pacific College in Seattle Washington with majors in both physics and mathematics. He completed his Ph.D. work in experimental particle physics in 1966 at University of California at Berkeley. He then changed his research interest from experimental work to theoretical work. He did his post doctorate work in the Theoretical Physics Group at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley from 1965 to 1967. After that he worked in the Theory Division at CERN, Geneva Switzerland, worked at Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England, and at Cal-tech in Pasadena, California. In 1971, Dr. Chiu joined UT Department of Physics as an Assistant Professor and the Center for Particle Theory (presently the Center for Particle Physics) as a faculty member. In 1981, he was promoted to a full Professor.

Dr. Chiu's research interest up to mid-90s was mainly in theoretical particle physics, especially in the area of the S-matrix theory, the Regge pole theory and particle collision phenomena at high energies. He also collaborated with Professor E. C. G. Sudarshan and collaborators in the study of the Quantum Zeno effect, in the formulation of the Generalized Quantum theory which involves unstable quantum systems.

Dr. Chiu also had interest in Artificial Intelligence research collaborated with Professor Benjamin Kuiper of UT Computer Science Department in the latter part of 80s. In mid-90s, Dr. Chiu worked on air-pollution related research in the area of acoustic agglomeration phenomena. Since then Dr. Chiu has collaborated with Professors Toshi Tajima and Mike Downer in the investigation of laser-wakefield acceleration and its application to radiation medicine. In collaboration with Professor Wendell Horton, he worked on electron acceleration in the outer space. Since 2004, he has been collaboration with Professor Rudolph Hwa in understanding relativistic heavy ion collision phenomena based on Hwa's recombination model. Dr. Chiu has published over 130 journal papers and 4 review articles related to his research.

Dr. Chiu has received numerous teaching excellence awards, which include UT President's Associates Teaching Excellence Award, a Special Teaching Award from the College of Engineering, Dad’s Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship, the Friar Centennial Teaching Fellowship and more. In 1998, Dr. Chiu was selected as a member of UT Academy of Distinguished Teachers.

Dr. Chiu is very interested in the teaching of Engineering Physics at UT, which involves a large classroom teaching. In the early 90s, he collaborated with Professor C. Fred Moore and other instructors in developing computerized problems for the Engineering Physics course. Dr. Chiu initiated the use of the classroom communication system ( the UT Classtalk system) to promote interactive teaching in large classroom. He has been actively involved in supporting interactive teaching using the wireless system.