Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu was a pioneering Chinese-American physicist whose exceptional experimental expertise fundamentally reshaped modern physics. Born on May 31, 1912 in Liuhe, China, she defied societal expectations of her time by pursuing advanced education in physics, graduating at the top of her class from National Central University in Nanjing in 1934. She continued her studies at the University of California, Berkeley, earning her PhD in physics in 1940 under Nobel laureate Ernest O. Lawrence. During World War II, she joined Columbia University's Manhattan Project team, where she made critical contributions to radiation detection and nuclear processes, later becoming a professor at Columbia and establishing herself as one of the most respected experimental physicists of the twentieth century.
Dr. Wu's most groundbreaking contribution came in 1956 with her elegant experimental demonstration that parity conservation does not hold in weak nuclear interactions, contradicting a fundamental principle previously considered inviolable. Her meticulously designed cobalt-60 experiment, now famously known as the 'Wu Experiment,' provided the first experimental proof that subatomic particles do not behave identically in mirror-image configurations, fundamentally altering our understanding of symmetry in the physical universe. This work enabled theoretical physicists Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang to develop their Nobel Prize-winning theory, though Wu's critical experimental contribution was controversially overlooked by the Nobel committee. Her research established new paradigms in particle physics and became essential to the Standard Model of particle physics, demonstrating her extraordinary ability to design experiments that could test the most profound theoretical conjectures with precision.
Despite the Nobel Prize omission, Dr. Wu's scientific stature remained unparalleled, earning her the National Medal of Science in 1975 and the inaugural Wolf Prize in Physics in 1978 for her persistent and successful exploration of the weak interaction, which helped establish the non-conservation of parity in weak nuclear forces. She broke significant barriers, serving in prominent roles within the American Physical Society and using her platform to champion gender equality in science and inspire generations of women physicists; Mildred Dresselhaus became the first woman president of the American Physical Society in 1999. Throughout her career, she tirelessly advocated for scientific education and ethical responsibility in research, authoring the textbook 'Beta Decay,' which became a standard reference in the field of experimental nuclear physics. Dr. Wu's legacy endures not only through her scientific discoveries but also through her unwavering commitment to excellence and her role as a trailblazer who overcame both gender and racial barriers to become one of the most respected experimental physicists in history.
