Chien-Shiung Wu: "Chinese Madam Julie"

Chien-Shiung Wu

" Chinese Madame Curie "

By Ivy W.

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In 1944, Chien-Shiung Wu went to Columbia University at request of Enrico Fermi (An Italian Physicist and recipient of the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics) to find a way to separate uranium metal into U-235 and U-238.

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Wait, no...
I'm supposed to turn this nob to the Left Not right!

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And she succeeded.

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This dude is Enrico Fermi

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Chien-Shiung Wu was born on May 31, 1912 in Liuhe, China. She was the middle child and was the only girl. During her early life she attended a girls-only school opened by her father.

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Chien-Shiung Wu

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Chien-Shiung Wu graduated in 1934 at the top of her class from the National Central University in Nanjing.

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National Central University

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In 1956 theoretical physicists Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang asked Chien-Shiung Wu to set up an experiment to prove if their theory was right.

Wu experiment

The Wu experiment proved that identical nuclear particles don't always act alike...

And it was exactly what all of them wanted to hear.

Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang

Because Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang's theory was proved right, the two of them both got the Nobel Prize.

Even though Chien-Shiung Wu did a part, she was awarded nothing.

In 1963, Chien-Shiung Wu was the first woman ever to receive the Comstock Prize in Physics.

FIRST Woman Ever!

Chien-Shiung Wu also got the National Medal of Science in 1975 "for her ingenious experiments that led to new and surprising understanding of the decay of the radioactive nucleus."

National Medal of Science

In 1978 Chien-Shiung Wu received the first Wolf Prize ever to be awarded.

AMAZING!!!

Chien-Shiung Wu died of stroke on February 16, 1997 in New York at the age of 84

Throughout her life, Chien-Shiung Wu made huge impacts on our world. Without her work, we couldn't have reached to the point where we are now.

And there is this one quote I will never forget :

" I have always felt in physics, and probably in other endeavors, too, I must have total commitment. "