Chien-Shiung Wu (Chinese: 吳健雄; May 31, 1912 – February 16, 1997) was a Chinese-American experimental physicist who made significant contributions in the field of nuclear 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. 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".
Early life and education[edit]
Chien-Shiung Wu was born in the town of Liuhe in Taicang, Jiangsu province, China,[3] on May 31, 1912,[4] the second of three children of Wu Zhong-Yi (吳仲裔) 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.[5] 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.[6]
Wu received her elementary school education at Ming De School,[5] a school for girls founded by her father.[7] She left her hometown in 1923 at the age of 11 to go to the Suzhou Women's Normal School No. 2. This was a boarding school with classes for teacher training as well as for regular high school. 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.[8]
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 philosopher Hu Shih, whose class she took.[9][10]
From 1930 to 1934, Wu studied at National Central University (later renamed Nanjing University and reinstated in Taiwan), first in mathematics, but later transferring to physics.[11] 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.[12] Wu was elected as one of the student leaders by her colleagues because they felt that since she was one of the top students at the university, her involvement would be forgiven, or at least overlooked, by the authorities. That being the case, she was careful not to neglect her studies.[4] She led protests that included a sit-in at the Presidential Palace in Nanjing, where the students were met by Chiang Kai-shek.[12]
For two years after graduation, she did graduate-level study in physics and worked as an assistant at Zhejiang University. She became a researcher at the Institute of Physics of the Academia Sinica.[2] Her supervisor was Gu Jing-Wei, who had earned her PhD abroad at University of Michigan and encouraged Wu to do the same. Wu was accepted by University of Michigan, and her uncle, Wu Zhou-Zhi, provided the necessary funds. She embarked for the United States with a female friend, Dong Ruo-Fen (董若芬), a chemist from Taicang, on the SS President Hoover in August 1936.[2] Her parents and uncle saw her off. She would never see her parents again.[13]
Death[edit]
Wu died on February 16, 1997, in New York City at the age of 84 after suffering a stroke. An ambulance rushed her to St. Luke's–Roosevelt Hospital Center, but she was pronounced dead on arrival. She was survived by her husband and son.[58] In accordance with her wishes, her ashes were buried in the courtyard of the Ming De School that her father had founded and she had attended as a girl.[64]
选择“Disable on www.wenxuecity.com”
选择“don't run on pages on this domain”
