Distinguished Guests of the
1998 California State Science Fair

Steven Chu

Steven Chu is the Theodore and Frances Geballe Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University. Along with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William Phillips he was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.

Other awards he has received include Fellowship of the American Physical Society (1987), of the Optical Society of America (1990), and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1992). He received the American Physical Society's Broida Prize for Laser Spectroscopy(1987), the Richtmyer Memorial Prize Lecture of the American Association of Physics Teachers (1990), was co-winner of the King Faisal International Prize for Science (1993), American Physical Society's Arthur Schawlow Prize for Laser Science(1994), and the Optical Society of America's William F. Meggers Award for Spectroscopy and Metrology(1994). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Academia Sinica (Warning: slow link!).

He has been at Stanford since 1987 in the Departments of Applied Physics and Physics, where he served as chair from 1990-1993. Prior to coming to Stanford he was Head of the Quantum Electronics Department at AT&T Bell Laboratories.

Professor Chu will deliver the Keynote Address at the Opening Ceremony on Monday night.

Gayle Wilson

Gayle Wilson is California's First Lady. She and her husband, Governor Pete Wilson, are Honorary Co-Chairs of the 1998 California State Science Fair. Raised in Arizona, as a student she participated in science fairs where, as a senior in high school, she was selected as one of only 40 Finalists in the country for the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. As a college student at Stanford University she received a degree in Biology and earned her Phi Beta Kappa key. As a public citizen, she has promoted the cause of excellence in science and scientific literacy. She was a founding member of the San Diego chapter of Achievement Rewards for College Scientists and served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Center for Excellence in Education in 1993 and 1994. She has been an Honorary Co-Chair of the California State Science Fair for six years, coming each year to the Fair to deliver her inspirational message.

Gayle Wilson will speak at the Tuesday morning Orientation Session prior to the Judging of Projects. Subsequently, she will tour the projects to speak with participants.

Kobie Boykins

Kobie Boykins is a member of the technical staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory having worked on the Mars Pathfinder project. Presently he is the mechanical lead for mobility on the Nanorover technology task which has been picked up by the Japanese Space Agency (ISAS) (Warning: slow link!) to fly on their mission MUSES-C. He is also mechanical lead for mobility on the Subsurface Explorer (SSX) technology task, and is working in support of the Free Flying Magnetometer flight project, the 2001 Mars flight project, the Solar Probe spacecraft project, and the Stardust flight project, the first U.S. mission to robotically obtain samples from deep space (from Comet Wild 2) and return them to Earth.

Kobie Boykins will be the Master of Ceremonies at the Awards Ceremony Tuesday afternoon.


California State Science Fair / 1998 / Distinguished Guests / CalifSF@usc.edu