Chien-Shiung Wu

Chien-Shiung Wu (May 31, 1912 – February 16, 1997) was a Chinese-American particle and experimental physicist who made significant contributions in the fields of nuclear and particle physics.

Wu worked on the Manhattan Project, where she helped develop the process for separating uranium into uranium-235 and uranium-238 isotopes by gaseous diffusion.

She is best known for conducting the Wu experiment, which proved that parity is not conserved.

Chien-Shiung Wu was born in the town of Liuhe, Taicang in Jiangsu province, China, on May 31, 1912, the second of three children of Wu Zhong-Yi and Fan Fu-Hua.

The family custom was that children of this generation had Chien as the first character (generation name) of their forename, followed by the characters in the phrase Ying-Shiung-Hao-Jie, which means "heroes and outstanding figures".

Accordingly, she had an older brother, Chien-Ying, and a younger brother, Chien-Hao.

Wu and her father were extremely close, and he encouraged her interests passionately, creating an environment where she was surrounded by books, magazines, and newspapers.

Wu's mother was a teacher and valued education for both sexes.

Wu's father was an engineer who encouraged women's equality and became a notable activist during the recent revolution led by Sun Yat-sen that modernized the country.

Her father supported the revolt due to his modern ideals.

He even led a local militia that wiped out local bandits and completely modernized the little town of Liuhe, while seeking girls from rich and poor families to join his new school.

Wu received her elementary school education at Ming De School, a school for girls founded by her father.

Wu grew up as a modest and inquisitive child in a well-to-do family.

She did not play outside like the other children but instead would listen to the newly invented radio for pleasure and knowledge.

She also enjoyed poetry and Chinese classics such as the Analects, and western literature on democracy that her father promoted at home.

Wu would listen to her father recite paragraphs from scientific journals instead of children's stories until Wu learned how to read.

Wu left her hometown in 1923 at the age of 11 to go to the Suzhou Women's Normal School No. 2, which was fifty miles from her home.

This was a boarding school with classes for teacher training as well as for regular high school, and it introduced subjects in science that slowly became a growing passion for the young Wu.

Admission to teacher training was more competitive, as it did not charge for tuition or board and guaranteed a job on graduation.

Although her family could have afforded to pay, Wu chose the more competitive option and was ranked ninth among around 10,000 applicants.

In 1929, Wu graduated at the top of her class and was admitted to National Central University in Nanjing.

According to government regulations of the time, teacher-training college students wanting to move on to universities needed to serve as schoolteachers for one year.

In Wu's case, this was only nominally enforced.

She went to teach at a public school in Shanghai, the president of which was the famous philosopher Hu Shih.

Hu became a very notable political icon whom Wu saw as a second father and would visit Wu when she was in the United States.

Hu was previously Wu's teacher when she took a few courses at National China College and was impressed when Wu, who sat in the front seat to be noticed by her hero, finished and perfected the first three-hour assessment in less than two hours.

Her elders advised her to "ignore the obstacles."

This was similar to what her father always reiterated to her, "Just put your head down and keep walking forward."

Although Wu ended up doing scientific research, her writing was considered outstanding thanks to her early training.

Her Chinese calligraphy was praised by others.

Before matriculating to National Central University Wu spent the summer preparing for her studies with her usual full force.

She felt that her background and training in Suzhou Women's Normal School were insufficient to prepare her for majoring in science.

Her father encouraged her to plunge ahead, and bought her three books for her self-study that summer: trigonometry, algebra, and geometry.

This experience was the beginning of her habit of self-study, and it gave her sufficient confidence to major in mathematics in the fall of 1930.

From 1930 to 1934, Wu studied at National Central University (now known as Nanjing University) and first majored in mathematics but later transferred to physics.

She became involved in student politics.

Relations between China and Japan were tense at this time, and students were urging the government to take a stronger line with Japan.

This discovery resulted in her colleagues Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang winning the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics, while Wu herself was awarded the inaugural Wolf Prize in Physics in 1978.

Her expertise in experimental physics evoked comparisons to Marie Curie.

Her nicknames include the "First Lady of Physics", the "Chinese Madame Curie" and the "Queen of Nuclear Research".