Chien-Shiung Wu

About

Chien-Shiung Wu was a pioneering Chinese-American physicist, born on May 31, 1912, in a small town near Shanghai. She was raised in an environment that valued education for women, thanks to her father's progressive views. Wu pursued her passion for physics at the National Central University in Nanking, graduating at the top of her class in 1934. She then moved to the United States, enrolling at the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned her Ph.D. in 1940 under the supervision of Ernest Lawrence. Wu's contributions to physics were significant, particularly in confirming Enrico Fermi's theory of beta decay and her work on the Manhattan Project. She played a crucial role in developing radiation detectors and resolving issues with the B Reactor. In 1956, Wu conducted the famous Wu Experiment, proving that parity is not conserved in beta decay, a theory proposed by Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang. Despite her groundbreaking work, Wu was overlooked for the Nobel Prize in 1957. She continued to excel, becoming the first female president of the American Physical Society and receiving numerous awards for her contributions to physics.