Paul Chu is a Chinese-born American physicist specializing in superconductivity, magnetism, and dielectrics. He is a Professor of physics and T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science in the Physics Department at the University of Houston College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. He was the President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology from 2001 to 2009. In 1987 he was one of the first scientists to demonstrate high-temperature superconductivity. He was born on February 12, 1941 in Changsha, China. He spent his childhood in Taiwan and received his Bachelor of Science degree from Taiwan Provincial Cheng Kung University in Taiwan in 1962. He earned his Master of Science degree from Fordham University in 1965. He completed his Ph.D. degree at the University of California at San Diego in 1968. In 1987 he and Maw-Kuen Wu announced the historic discovery of superconductivity above 77 K in YBCO, touching off a frenzy of scientific excitement exemplified by the Woodstock of physics, at which he was a featured presenter. He was then appointed the Director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity. Chu has received numerous awards and honors for his outstanding work in superconductivity, including the National Medal of Science and the Comstock Prize in Physics in 1988, and the American Physical Society's International Prize for New Materials.