Women in Science

Chien-Shiung Wu

Physicist

In 1956 Chien-Shung Wu (b. 1912) devised an experiment by which one of the basic laws of physics—so-called parity conservation—was overturned, an achievement that helped win a Nobel Prize for two of her colleagues and revolutionized the study of particle physics. Born and raised in China, Wu studied physics at the prestigious National Central University and then in the United States at the University of California, Berkeley. She joined the Manhattan Project at Columbia University in 1944, initially focusing on uranium enrichment and neutron research. Later she helped devise an ultra-low-temperature apparatus with which to study symmetry in relation to nuclear structure, leading to her celebrated demonstration of nonsymmetry in the phenomena of weak nuclear interactions. In these and other experiments Wu, also a professor at Columbia, has combined scientific rigor with the joy and mystery of the creative spirit.

Be sure to read about how other female, African-American and other scientists helped shape our history and make our world what it is today.

Information Source: Publication Department of the Library of Congress. Photograph courtesy New York World-Telegram and Sun Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.