Peter Lu

Peter James Lu, PhD (陸述義, b. 1978 in Cleveland, OH) is a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Physics at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. His most widely-known discovery, amidst pursuits in several diverse fields (see below), has come in the identification of quasi-crystalline patterns in medieval Islamic tilings. [cite journal

author = Peter J. Lu and Paul J. Steinhardt
year = 2007
title = Decagonal and Quasi-crystalline Tilings in Medieval Islamic Architecture
journal = Science
volume = 315
pages = 1106–1110
url = http://www.physics.harvard.edu/~plu/publications/Science_315_1106_2007.pdf
doi = 10.1126/science.1135491; ] [ Id., "Further notes on quasi-crystal tilings", Science, Vol. 316. no. 5827, pp. 981 - 982 (May 18, 2007) ] Lu grew up in West Chester, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia, where an early interest in rock collecting [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/311/5763/931a] developed into unprecedented success at the National Science Olympiad, where Lu won seven gold medals, four of which came in the event, "Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils." Lu went on to pursue a physics degree (A.B.) at Princeton University, where he graduated "summa cum laude" and Phi Beta Kappa. His senior thesis research under Paul Steinhardt, which was eventually published in Physical Review Letters, [cite journal
author = Peter J. Lu, Kenneth Deffeyes, Paul J. Steinhardt, and Nan Yao
year = 2001
title = Identifying and Indexing Icosahedral Quasicrystals from Powder Diffraction Patterns
journal = PRL
volume = 87
pages = 275507
url = http://www.physics.harvard.edu/~plu/publications/PhysRevLett_87_275507_2001.pdf
doi = 10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.275507] involved searching powder diffraction patterns for a naturally occurring quasi-crystal.

Lu's collaboration with Princeton material scientist [http://www.princeton.edu/~iac/nan/index.html Nan Yao] led to two other significant publications, the lead chapter of [http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Microscopy-Nanotechnology-Nanostructure-Technology/dp/1402080034/ "Handbook of Microscopy for Nanotechnology"] [“Confocal Scanning Optical Microscopy and Nanotechnology,” in Handbook of Microscopy forNanotechnology, N. Yao and Z. L. Wang eds., New York: Kluwer, pp. 3-24 (2005) & Beijing: TsinghuaUniversity Press, pp. 1-23 (2006)] , and a paper on the "Earliest Use of Corundum and Diamond in Prehistoric China" [cite journal
author = Peter J. Lu, Nan Yao, et al.
year = 2005
title = Earliest Use of Corundum and Diamond in Prehistoric China
journal = Archaeometry
volume = 47
pages = 1
url = http://www.physics.harvard.edu/~plu/publications/Archaeometry_47_1_2005.pdf
doi = 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2005.00184.x] . This research showed that diamond, not quartz (as had been long-thought), was the polishing agent used by Chinese artisans on jade axes, dated to between 4000 and 2500 BC, pushing the date of the first use of diamond over two thousand years earlier than the previously thought. [See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4555235.stm.]

Further interest in the intersection of technology and Chinese art led to a paper in the "Brevia" section of Science, this time regarding the earliest established compound machine [cite journal

author = Peter J. Lu
year = 2004
title = Early Precision Compound Machine from Ancient China
journal = Science
volume = 304
pages = 1638
url = http://www.physics.harvard.edu/~plu/publications/Science_304_1638_2004.pdf
doi = 10.1126/science.1096588] (as opposed to a simple machine). Prior to this paper, the earliest compound machines were thought to be of Greek origin (e.g., Archimedes' screw); this work found them in China, pre-dating Archimedes by several centuries ["Encyclopedia Britannica" 2005 Book of the Year, p. 150: http://www.physics.harvard.edu/~plu/research/spiral_rings/media/Britannica_2005.pdf] .

Continued interest in Paleontology and collaboration with his college roommate [http://finance.wharton.upenn.edu/~yogo/ Motohiro Yogo] led to a landmark paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [cite journal

author = Peter J. Lu, Motohiro Yogo, and Charles Marshall
year = 2006
title = Phanerozoic Marine Biodiversity Dynamics in light of the Incompleteness of the Fossil Record
journal = PNAS
volume = 103
pages = 2736–2739
url = http://www.physics.harvard.edu/~plu/publications/PNAS_103_2736_2006.pdf
doi = 10.1073/pnas.0511083103] . Leveraging vector autoregression analysis upon an established marine fossil record, the authors found that a "speed limit," which was previously thought to restrict the reemergence of biodiversity following a mass extinction, does not in fact appear. According to paleontologist Douglas Erwin of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., "This is the battle line for the next decade in paleontology." [Quoted in http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/311/5763/931a]

Lu's work with medieval Islamic tilings received substantial worldwide news coverage [ [http://www.physics.harvard.edu/~plu/research/islamic_quasicrystal/ Peter J. Lu — Research ] ] for its timely scientific and political implications. Quasi-crystalline patterns, not widely known to the West until the discovery of Penrose tilings in 1973, were found on mausoleums and mosques dating to around 1500 A.D. in Iran and Turkey. Lu's research proposed the utilization of girih tiles in decorating the structures, which would allow common workers the ability to create such otherwise-complicated patterns.

Lu's doctoral thesis research at Harvard University, in the experimental soft condensed matter group of [http://www.seas.harvard.edu/projects/weitzlab/ David Weitz] , concerns the behavior of colloidal particles in the laboratory and in zero-gravity situations. The laboratory work has led to new techniques for observing and modeling colloidal behavior [cite journal

author = Peter J. Lu, P. A. Sims, et al.
year = 2007
title = Target-locking Acquisition with Real-time Confocal (TARC) Microscopy
journal = Optics Express
volume = 15
pages = 8702
url = http://www.physics.harvard.edu/~plu/publications/OpEx_15_8702_2007.pdf
doi = 10.1364/OE.15.008702] , while the latter environment has comprised experiments on the International Space Station.

ee also

*Paul Steinhardt
*Penrose tiling
*Aperiodic tiling
*Darb-i Imam
*Girih

Notes and References

cite web
last = Austin
first = Jim
title = Profile - Peter Lu
url=http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/previous_issues/articles/2006_02_17/profile_peter_lu
accessdate = 2006-02-17

External links

*Peter Lu's home page [http://www.physics.harvard.edu/~plu]