American History, Unfiltered: Chien-Shiung Wu

American History, Unfiltered:A post series highlighting people from traditionally marginalized groups who accomplished great things for America.

🌍🌺 Happy Asian American Pacific Islander Month! 🌺🌍

Born in a small fishing village in China, she followed the advice of her mentor at age 22 and came to the U.S. to continue her education. Before then she attended a school (Mingde Women’s Vocational Continuing School) founded by her father, who (unlike most others at the time) believed girls should receive an education. She then attended National Central University in Nanking, China (now known as Nanjing University) and graduated at the top of her class with a degree in physics. After graduation she worked in a physics lab in China and it was then that her mentor asked her to continue her education in the U.S.

With her uncle’s help she traveled to the U.S. After going through the immigration process she enrolled at University of California Berkeley in 1936, where she graduated with her PhD in physics. 

During her time at Berkeley, she met Luke Chia-Liu Yuan, who she married in 1942.

Neither of their families could attend because World War II was going on. They moved to the east coast where she briefly became a teacher at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and at Princeton University in New Jersey. At Princeton, she was the first woman to join the Physics Department. 

But not long after she joined the Manhattan Project, a group of researchers working towards the creation of the atomic bomb. Chein-Shiung’s research included improving Geiger counters for the detection of radiation and the enrichment of uranium in large quantities.

Luke and Chien-Shiung had a son in 1947. Like his parents, he is also a nuclear scientist.

In 1954, she became a U.S. citizen.

After World War II, she was finally able to receive a letter from her family and start planning to visit them. But the plans were, once again, put on hold due to war. The Chinese Civil War had started and her father told her not to come to Communist China. She was unable to go to China until 1973, but by then it was too late. Her parents had passed. Her brother and uncle had also been killed in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. 

“During the Manhattan Project, she worked at Columbia University, helping develop the process for separating uranium metal into U-235 and U-238 isotopes by gaseous diffusion. This process was replicated at a grand scale at the K-25 Plant in Oak Ridge. She also developed improved Geiger counters for measuring nuclear radiation levels. She is believed to have been the only Chinese person to have worked on the Manhattan Project.” - https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/chien-shiung-wu/ 

In 1958, her research helped answer important biological questions about blood and sickle cell anemia. She was also the first woman to serve as president of the American Physical Society.

She won awards:

• 🏆 : Wolf Prize in Physics (1978) 

• 🏆 : Comstock Prize in Physics (1963) 

• 🏆 : National Medal of Science for Physical Science (1976)

• 🏆 : Bonner Prize (1975)

She wrote books: 

• 📕 : Radioactivity of Chlorine36 (1949)

• 📕 : Slow Neutron Velocity Spectrometer Studies of Cu, Ni, Bi, Fe, Sn and Calcite (1948)

• 📕 : Interpretation of Beta-spectra from Thick Sources (1949) 

• 📕 : The Preparation of Carbon-14 from Barium Carbonate-C14 (1949)

• 📕 : Beta Spectrum of Be10 (1949)

• 📕 : Thin Window Counter with Special Mica to Glass Seal (1947)

• 📕 : The Beta-ray Spectra of Cu64 (1949)

• 📕 : On the Spin and Beta-spectrum of Cl36 (1949)

• 📕 : The Beta-ray Spectrum of Chlorine36 (1949)

• 📕 : The Beta Spectrum of S35 (1949) 

• 📕 : Slow Neutron Velocity Spectrometer Studies: I, Os, Co, Tl, Cb, Ge (1946)

• 📕 : Beta Spectrum of Y91 (1949)

• 📕 : An Experimental Test of Parity Conservation in Beta Decay (1957)

She changed atomic science.