Peter Lu

Lu was born in Cleveland, Ohio

{{cite web

|author = lu Gerhid

|title = Justin Prayog Flesher

|publisher = Asian Week

|url = http://www.asianweek.com/2008/09/03/stephanie-tubbs-jones/

|access-date = 2008-10-02

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110213070427/http://www.asianweek.com/2008/09/03/stephanie-tubbs-jones/

|archive-date = 2011-02-13

}}

and grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of West Chester, Pennsylvania. His early childhood interest in rockhounding

{{cite journal

| author = Richard A. Kerr

| year = 2006

| title = Paleobiology: Revised Numbers Quicken the Pace of Rebound From Mass Extinctions

| journal = Science

| volume = 311

| page = 931

| doi = 10.1126/science.311.5763.931a

| pmid = 16484458

| issue = 5763

| s2cid = 27111839

}}

led to his winning national gold medals in the "Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils" event at four National Science Olympiad tournaments. Lu graduated from B. Reed Henderson high school in West Chester in 1996.

Lu matriculated at Princeton University in September, 1996, and was advised in his first year by geology professor Kenneth S. Deffeyes. He studied organic chemistry with Maitland Jones, Jr., with whom Lu published his first paper on his freshman summer research project about carbenes.

{{cite journal

| last1 = Lu | first1 = Peter J.

| author-link1 = Peter Lu

| last2 = Pan | first2 = Weitao

| last3 = Jones, Jr. | first3 = Maitland

| author-link3 = Maitland Jones

| year = 1998

| title = Benzocyclohex-1-en-3-yne at High Temperature

| journal = J. Am. Chem. Soc.

| volume = 120

| pages = 8315–8318

| doi = 10.1021/ja981434l

| issue = 33

}}

As an undergraduate physics major, he wrote his fourth-year senior thesis with Prof. Paul J. Steinhardt on the search for natural quasicrystals, later published in Physical Review Letters.{{cite journal

| last1 = Lu | first1 = Peter J.

| author-link1 = Peter Lu

| last2 = Deffeyes | first2 = Kenneth S.

| author-link2 = Kenneth S. Deffeyes

| last3 = Steinhardt | first3 = Paul J.

| author-link3 = Paul Steinhardt

| last4 = Yao | first4 = Nan

| year = 2001

| title = Identifying and Indexing Icosahedral Quasicrystals from Powder Diffraction Patterns

| journal = Physical Review Letters

| volume = 87

| issue = 27

| page = 275507

| doi = 10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.275507 | pmid=11800896 | bibcode=2001PhRvL..87A5507L

|arxiv = cond-mat/0108259 | s2cid = 2814118

}}

Lu graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with an A.B. in physics from Princeton in June, 2000. In September, 2000, he began his graduate studies at Harvard University, receiving an A. M. in physics in 2002. In 2005, Lu presented a set of lectures in Turkmenistan.

{{cite journal

| last = Stone

| first = Richard

| year = 2008

| title = Engineering: The End of an Intellectual Dark Age?

| journal = Science

| volume = 320

| pages = 1004–1005

| doi = 10.1126/science.320.5879.1004

| pmid = 18497271

| issue = 5879

| s2cid = 206580407

}}

Since 2007, Lu has served on the national advisory committee of the Science Olympiad.

{{cite web

| title = Science Olympiad National Committees

| url = http://soinc.org/national_committees}}

Lu completed his Ph.D. in physics in 2008.

Lu's most widely publicized work involves his discovery of the girih tiles, a set of fundamental geometric tiles used to create a wide range of patterns in medieval Islamic architecture. In collaboration with Paul Steinhardt, he demonstrated their use to create quasicrystal tilings on the walls of Darb-i Imam shrine (1453 A.D.) in Isfahan, Iran.

{{cite journal

| last1 = Lu | first1 = Peter J.

| author-link1 = Peter Lu

| last2 = Steinhardt | first2 = Paul J.

| author-link2 = Paul Steinhardt

| year = 2007

| title = Decagonal and Quasi-crystalline Tilings in Medieval Islamic Architecture

| journal = Science

| volume = 315

| pages = 1106–1110

| doi = 10.1126/science.1135491

| pmid = 17322056

| issue = 5815

|bibcode = 2007Sci...315.1106L | s2cid = 10374218

}}

The finding was considered a significant breakthrough by demonstrating a simple and straightforward method that could have been used by common workers to create extremely complicated patterns using girih tiles, and by identifying a medieval example of quasicrystalline patterns, which were not widely known to or understood by the West until the discovery of Penrose tilings by Roger Penrose in the 1970s. For its timely scientific and political implications, Lu and Steinhardt's work on medieval Islamic architectural tilings received substantial worldwide coverage on the front pages

{{cite news

| last = Wilford

| first = John Noble

| title = In Medieval Architecture, Signs of Advanced Math

| newspaper = The New York Times

| pages = A1, F2

| date = 2007-02-27

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/science/27math.html}}

{{cite news

| last = Henderson

| first = Mark

| title = Amazing maths of the mosaic makers

| newspaper = The Times (of London)

| pages = 1, 29

| date = 2007-02-23

| url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article1426786.ece| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070225090829/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article1426786.ece| url-status = dead| archive-date = February 25, 2007}}

{{cite news

| last = Manier

| first = Jeremy

| title = New light on ancient patterns: Sophisticated Islamic geometric designs in Iran predate Western discovery by 500 years

| newspaper = Chicago Tribune

| pages = 1, 12

| date = 2007-02-23

| url = http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2007/feb/23/science/chi-0702230053feb23}}

{{cite news

| last = Weintraub

| first = Karen

| title = Science imitates art?

| newspaper = Boston Globe

| pages = A1, C1

| date = 2007-02-26

| url = http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/02/26/science_imitates_art/}}

{{cite news

|title = Medieval Islamic artists made amazing maths breakthrough

|newspaper = Gulf News

|page = 1

|date = 2007-02-24

|url = http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/02/24/10106673.html

|access-date = 2009-04-08

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080624091418/http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/02/24/10106673.html

|archive-date = 2008-06-24

|url-status = dead

}}

{{cite news

|title = Medieval Muslims made stunning math breakthrough

|newspaper = Today's Zaman

|pages = 1, 11

|date = 2007-02-24

|url = http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=103727

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100105194940/http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=103727

|archive-date = 2010-01-05

}}

of a number of major newspapers,

{{cite news

| last = Highfield

| first = Roger

| title = Islamic tilers may have led scientific field

| newspaper = The Daily Telegraph

| page = 17

| date = 2007-02-23

| url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3351505/Islamic-tilers-may-have-led-scientific-field.html

| archive-url = https://archive.today/20130421102624/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3351505/Islamic-tilers-may-have-led-scientific-field.html

| url-status = dead

| archive-date = 2013-04-21

| location=London}}

{{cite news|title=Medieval Muslims made stunning math breakthrough |newspaper=The Times of India |page=19 |date=2007-02-24 |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/Health__Science/Medieval_Muslims_made_stunning_maths_breakthrough/articleshow/1670199.cms |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010224651/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/Health__Science/Medieval_Muslims_made_stunning_maths_breakthrough/articleshow/1670199.cms |archive-date=October 10, 2008 }}

{{cite news

| last = Smith

| first = Deborah

| title = Patterns of Islamic genius crystal clear centuries ago

| newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald

| page = 5

| date = 2007-02-26

| url = http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/patterns-of-islamic-genius-crystal-clear-centuries-ago/2007/02/25/1172338468776.html}}

{{cite news

| title = Designs from Islamic artists streets ahead of West

| newspaper = The New Zealand Herald

| pages = B10

| date = 2007-02-24

| url = http://www.nzherald.co.nz/religion-and-beliefs/news/article.cfm?c_id=301&objectid=10425493}}

{{cite news

| last = Connor

| first = Steve

| title = Islamic artists were 500 years ahead of Western scientists

| newspaper = The Independent

| page = 24

| date = 2007-02-23

| url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/islamic-artists-were-500-years-ahead-of-western-scientists-437515.html

| archive-url = https://swap.stanford.edu/20090122101821/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/islamic%2Dartists%2Dwere%2D500%2Dyears%2Dahead%2Dof%2Dwestern%2Dscientists%2D437515.html

| url-status = dead

| archive-date = January 22, 2009

| location=London}}

{{cite news

| title = Modern mathematicians are 500 years behind

| newspaper = The Globe and Mail

| pages = A18

| date = 2007-02-23

| url = https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=https://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FLAC.20070223.WORLDS23-4%2FTPStory%2F%3F

| location=Toronto}}

{{cite news

|last = Owen

|first = Gerald

|title = The art of repetition

|newspaper = National Post

|pages = A16

|date = 2007-02-23

|url = https://nationalpost.com/story.html?id=6c251074-5a9c-4978-9f36-69934737c404

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://archive.today/20130129161608/http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=6c251074-5a9c-4978-9f36-69934737c404

|archive-date = 2013-01-29

}}

{{cite news

| title = Findings: Muslim Tile Patterns Show Math Prowess

| newspaper = The Washington Post

| pages = A10

| date = 2007-02-23

| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201731.html}}

{{cite news

|title = Medieval Islamic Architecture Predates Western Mastery

|newspaper = Iran Daily

|page = 12

|date = 2007-02-28

|url = http://www.iran-daily.com/1385/2793/html/art.htm

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090722114547/http://www.iran-daily.com/1385/2793/html/art.htm

|archive-date = 2009-07-22

}}

on the radio,

{{cite episode

| last = Greenfield-Boyce | first = Nell

| title = Medieval Mosques Illuminated by Math

| series =All Thing Considered

|publisher= National Public Radio

| airdate = 2007-02-22

| url = https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7544360}}

{{cite episode

| title = Islamic Art

| series = BBC World Service, The World Today

| airdate = 2007-02-24

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6389157.stm | access-date=2010-01-06}}

and in magazines;

{{cite news

| last = Carmichael

| first = Mary

| title = Islam Got it First

| newspaper = Newsweek [Int'l Ed.]

| page = 42

| date = 2007-03-19

| url = http://www.newsweek.com/id/36281}}

{{cite news

| last = Bohannon

| first = John

| title = 59. Medieval Mosque Shows Amazing Math Discovery

| newspaper = Discover

| page = 59

| date = January 2008

| url = http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jan/math-breakthrough-spotted-on-mosques}}

{{cite news

| last = Hecht

| first = Jeff

| title = Islamic tilers got it long before Penrose

| newspaper = New Scientist

| page = 18

| date = 2007-03-03

| url = https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11235-medieval-islamic-tiling-reveals-mathematical-savvy.html}}

{{cite news

| title = Medieval Quasicrystals

| newspaper = Scientific American

| page = 36

| date = May 2007

| url = http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=islamic-artisans-constr}}

the finding was identified as among the top 100 scientific discoveries of 2007 by Discover magazine.

In 2004, Lu presented evidence in a single-author paper in Science that ancient Chinese craftsmen during the Spring and Autumn period used precision compound machines to craft spiral grooves on Chinese jade burial rings;{{cite journal

| last = Lu | first = Peter J.

| author-link = Peter Lu

| year = 2004

| title = Early Precision Compound Machine from Ancient China

| journal = Science

| volume = 304

| page = 1638

| doi = 10.1126/science.1096588

| pmid = 15192220

| issue = 5677| s2cid = 31894977

}}

Lu had been introduced earlier to the grooved rings by Prof. Jenny So at the Smithsonian Institution.

{{cite news

| last = Hecht

| first = Jeff

| title = Spiral ring reveals ancient complex machines

| newspaper = New Scientist

| date = 2004-06-10

| url = https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn5103-spiral-ring-reveals-ancient-complex-machines.html}}

Lu discovered that these grooves follow the exact mathematical form of the Archimedes spiral, demonstrating the ability of ancient craftsmen to interconvert two types of motion precisely, in order to fashion the jade rings. The close conformity to this mathematical form confirmed that these craftsmen must have had a precision compound machine (as opposed to a simple machine) in 550 BC, predating Archimedes by several centuries; prior to this paper, the earliest compound machines were thought to be of Greek origin (e.g., Archimedes' screw).

{{cite news

| title = China had first complex machines

| publisher = BBC News

| date = 2004-06-04

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3792819.stm}}

{{cite news

|title = First Compound Machine Found In China

|newspaper = Popular Science

|page = 18

|date = September 2008

|url = http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/technology_watch/1288491.html

|archive-url = https://archive.today/20070307180234/http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/technology_watch/1288491.html

|url-status = dead

|archive-date = 2007-03-07

}}

Lu continued his interdisciplinary combination of art history and physics with his discovery, with a group of collaborators,{{cite journal

| last1 = Lu | first1 = P. J.

| author-link1 = Peter Lu

| last2 = Yao | first2 = N.

| last3 = So | first3 = J. F.

| last4 = Harlow | first4 = G. E.

| last5 = Lu | first5 = J. F.

| last6 = Wang | first6 = G. F.

| last7 = Chaikin | first7 = P. M.

| author-link7 = Paul Chaikin

| year = 2005

| title = The Earliest Use of Corundum and Diamond, in Prehistoric China

| journal = Archaeometry

| volume = 47

| pages = 1–12

| url = http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118641758/abstract

| archive-url = https://archive.today/20130105073143/http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118641758/abstract

| url-status = dead

| archive-date = 2013-01-05

| doi = 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2005.00184.x| url-access = subscription

}}

of man's first use of diamond, in Neolithic China. Prior to this work, evidence for man's first use of diamond was known primarily from Indian texts dating to the latter half of the first millennium BC, and there was no reported evidence for its use in prehistoric times. In 2005, Lu and collaborators reported strong evidence that the ancient Chinese used diamonds to polish ceremonial stone burial axes as early as 2500 BC, placing the earliest known use of diamond two thousand years before the mineral is known to have been used elsewhere. These stone axes, made predominantly of the mineral corundum (sapphire and ruby in its colorful gem forms) were fashioned as early as 4000 BC, so that they represent the earliest use of the mineral corundum, as well. The finding's media coverage

{{cite episode

| title = Advanced Stone-Polishing Techniques Employed Earlier Than Thought

| series =All Thing Considered

|publisher=National Public Radio

| airdate = 2005-03-07

| url = https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4525808}}

{{cite news

| title = Chinese made first use of diamond

| publisher = BBC News

| date = 2005-05-17

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4555235.stm}}

{{cite episode

| title = Chinese Stone Axes

| series =Quirks and Quarks

|publisher=CBC Radio

| airdate = 2005-04-09

| url = http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/04-05/apr09.html}}

{{cite news

| last = Cohen

| first = Robert C.

| title = The high tech of prehistory

| newspaper = The Christian Science Monitor

| page = 16

| date = 2005-03-05

| url = http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0303/p16s01-stss.html}}

{{cite news

| last = Goho

| first = Alexandra

| title = In the Buff: Stone Age tools may have derived luster from diamond

| newspaper = Science News

| page = 116

| date = 2005-02-19

| url = http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/5909/title/In_the_Buff_Stone_Age_tools_may_have_derived_luster_from_diamond}}

included a front-page article in China's largest English-language newspaper, the China Daily.

{{cite news

| title = Earliest use of diamonds by Chinese found

| newspaper = China Daily

| page = 1

| date = 2005-02-18

| url = http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-02/18/content_417247.htm}}

Lu's interests in geology-related phenomena also include paleontology, which led to collaboration with his college and grad-school roommate Motohiro Yogo and Prof. Charles Marshall. Leveraging vector autoregression analysis upon an established marine fossil record, Lu, Yogo and Marshall found that a "speed limit", which was previously thought to restrict the reemergence of biodiversity following a mass extinction, may be an artifact of the incompleteness of the fossil record.{{cite journal

| last1 = Lu | first1 = Peter J.

| author-link1 = Peter Lu

| last2 = Yogo| first2 = Motohiro

| last3 = Marshall | first3 = Charles R.

| title = Phanerozoic marine biodiversity dynamics in light of the incompleteness of the fossil record

| journal = PNAS

| volume = 103

| pages = 2736–2739

| year = 2006

| doi = 10.1073/pnas.0511083103

| pmid = 16477008

| issue = 8

| pmc = 1413823|bibcode = 2006PNAS..103.2736L | doi-access = free

}}

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."

Lu's research in the group of Prof. David A. Weitz focused on the behavior of attractive colloidal particles in the laboratory and in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station. In 2008, Lu, Weitz and collaborators in Rome combined experiment and computer simulations to demonstrate that the onset of colloidal gelation is triggered by a form of phase separation known as spinodal decomposition,{{cite journal

| last1 = Lu | first1 = Peter J.

| author-link1 = Peter Lu

| last2 = Zaccarelli | first2 = Emanuela

| last3 = Ciulla | first3 = Fabio

| last4 = Schofield | first4 = Andrew B.

| last5 = Sciortino | first5 = Francesco

| last6 = Weitz | first6 = David A.

| author-link6 = David Weitz

| title = Gelation of particles with short-range attraction

| journal = Nature

| volume = 453

| pages = 499–503

| year = 2008

| doi = 10.1038/nature06931

| pmid = 18497820

| issue = 7194|bibcode = 2008Natur.453..499L | s2cid = 4409873

}}

resolving a long-standing debate within the soft condensed-matter physics community on the origins of this mechanism. Lu's colloid work has also led to the development of new techniques for observing real-time, three-dimensional behavior of colloidal particles, and freely-moving biological cells, with active target-locking in real-time confocal microscopy.{{cite journal

| last1 = Lu | first1 = Peter J.

| author-link1 = Peter Lu

| last2 = Sims | first2 = Peter A.

| last3 = Oki | first3 = Hidekazu

| last4 = Macarthur | first4 = James B.

| last5 = Weitz | first5 = David A.

| title = Target-locking acquisition with real-time confocal (TARC) microscopy

| journal = Optics Express

| volume = 15

| issue = 14

| pages = 8702–8712

| year = 2007

| doi = 10.1364/OE.15.008702| pmid = 19547205

|bibcode = 2007OExpr..15.8702L | s2cid = 16821126

| doi-access = free

}}

Lu also wrote the opening chapter, on confocal microscopy and nanotechnology, of the Handbook of Microscopy for Nanotechnology, edited by Nan Yao.{{cite conference

| last = Lu | first = Peter J.

| author-link = Peter Lu

| editor1-last = Yao | editor1-first = Nan

| editor2-last = Wang | editor2-first = Zhong-Lin

| title = Confocal Scanning Optical Microscopy and Nanotechnology

| book-title = Handbook of Microscopy for Nanotechnology

| pages = 3–24

| publisher = Kluwer

| place = New York

| year = 2005

| url = https://www.springer.com/materials/characterization+&+evaluation/book/978-1-4020-8003-6}}

• Girih tiles
• Penrose tiles

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• [https://www.peterlu.org Peter J. Lu's home page]

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lu, Peter}}

Category:1978 births

Category:Living people

Category:Scientists from Cleveland

Category:21st-century American physicists

Category:Harvard University faculty

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:Princeton University alumni