Chien-Shiung Wu

Chien-Shiung Wu (??? Pinyin: Wú Jiànxíong) (May 31, 1912–February 16, 1997) was a female Chinese American physicist with an expertise in radioactivity. She worked on the Manhattan Project (to enrich the uranium fuel) and disproved the conservation of parity. Her nicknames to many scientists are "First Lady of Physics," "Madame Curie of China" and also "Madame Wu".

America

In 1936, she went to the USA with a female friend, Dong Ruofen (???), a chemist from Taicang. Wu studied at the University of California, Berkeley and received her Ph.D in 1940. She married Luke Chia-Liu Yuan (???,?????)(the grandson of Yuan Shikai), also a physicist, two years later. They had a son, Vincent (???), who became a physicist as well. The family moved to the East Coast, where Wu taught at Smith College, Princeton University, and Columbia University (1957).

Related Topics:
1936 - USA - University of California, Berkeley - 1940 - Luke Chia-Liu Yuan - Yuan Shikai - East Coast - Smith College - Princeton University - Columbia University - 1957

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She assisted Tsung-Dao Lee personally in his parity laws development (with Chen Ning Yang) by providing him with a possible test method for beta decay in 1956 that worked successfully. Some consider this very instrumental in the creation of the laws, but she did not share their Nobel Prize - a fact widely blamed on sexism by the selection committee. Her book Beta Decay (1965) is still a standard reference for nuclear physicists.

Related Topics:
Tsung-Dao Lee - Parity - Chen Ning Yang - Beta decay - 1956 - Nobel Prize - 1965

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She later conducted research into the molecular changes in the deformation of hemoglobins that cause sickle-cell disease.

Related Topics:
Hemoglobin - Sickle-cell disease

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wu set precedents for womankind on several occasions. She was:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• the first female instructor in the Physics Department of Princeton University;
• the first woman with a Princeton honorary doctorate;
• the first female President of the American Physical Society (1975, through an election).

Wu won the National Medal of Science in 1975, and the first Wolf Prize in Physics in 1978.

Related Topics:
National Medal of Science - 1975 - Wolf Prize in Physics - 1978

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At the time of her death, Wu was Pupin Professor Emeritus of Physics at Columbia.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~