Science, Medicine & Engineering
Landmark
Chien-Shiung Wu
1912 – 1997
Experimental physicist known as the first lady of physics
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the China Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
The experimental physicist whose 1956 experiment proved that parity is not conserved in weak interactions, one of the most important results in twentieth-century physics.
Chien-Shiung Wu left China for the United States in 1936 and became a leading experimental physicist, working at Columbia University. Her Wu experiment confirmed the prediction of Yang and Lee; they received the Nobel Prize, and her omission is widely regarded as an injustice.
She received the first Wolf Prize in Physics and was the first woman to serve as president of the American Physical Society.
She received the first Wolf Prize in Physics and was the first woman to serve as president of the American Physical Society.
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