Contents
Chien-Shiung Wu
Leading the experiment that showed nature’s weak interaction does not obey mirror symmetry.
Wu experiment · Beta Decay
- Born
- 31 May 1912
- Birthplace
- Liuhe, Jiangsu, China
- Died
- 16 February 1997
More people
Chien-Shiung Wu
A Chinese-American experimental physicist whose precise laboratory work changed particle physics. She spent much of her career at Columbia University.
Early life
Education in China
Her father supported girls’ education; she later studied physics in Nanjing.
Graduate research
Moved to the United States and earned a doctorate at Berkeley.
Career
- 1940
Doctorate
Completed her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley.
- 1944 onward
Columbia research
Worked on the Manhattan Project and later nuclear physics.
- 1956–1957
Parity experiment
Led an experiment testing whether weak interactions respect mirror symmetry.
- 1975
Professional leadership
Became the first woman president of the American Physical Society.
Contributions
Wu experiment
Cobalt-60 measurements demonstrated parity violation in beta decay.
Beta Decay
Published a specialist reference on the subject.
Wolf Prize
Received the inaugural Wolf Prize in Physics.
Beyond physics
Recognition gap
The 1957 Nobel Prize went to theorists Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang; Wu was not included.
Women in science
Spoke against barriers limiting women’s participation in physics.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Smithsonian account of the experiment ↗Photo: Smithsonian Institution from United States. No known copyright restrictions · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
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