About
Chinese-American particle and experimental physicist who made significant contributions in the fields of nuclear and particle physics. She worked on the Manhattan Project and 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."
Before Fame
She left her hometown in 1923 at the age of 10 to go to the Suzhou Women's Normal School No. 2, a boarding school for teacher training. She left China for the U.S. in 1936, where she went to graduate school at the University of California Berkeley, earning a Ph.D.
Trivia
Wu would listen to her father recite paragraphs from scientific journals instead of children's stories until Wu learned how to read. As a student at National Central University, she led protests that included a sit-in at the Presidential Palace in Nanjing, where the students were met by Chiang Kai Shek.
Family Life
She was born in the town of Liuhe, Taicang in Jiangsu province, China, the second of three children. Her father was an engineer and her mother was a teacher. She married physicist Luke Chia-Liu Yuan after meeting him in Berkeley.
Associated With
She worked with J. Robert Oppenheimer on the development of the first atomic bomb. She confirmed Albert Einstein's thought experiment on quantum entanglement, and she confirmed one of the theories of Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann related to beta decay.
