Chien-Shiung Wu

The 'First Lady of Physics' who overturned fundamental laws of nature

Chien-Shiung Wu (1912–1997), a Chinese-American experimental physicist, conducted the Wu Experiment in 1956, which disproved the 'Law of Parity'—a principle long considered immutable in quantum mechanics. Despite her critical role, Nobel Prize recognition went only to her male colleagues Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang. Wu’s meticulous beta-decay research at Columbia University not only reshaped physics but also aided the Manhattan Project’s uranium enrichment during WWII.

Known for her mantra 'Hmm, check again', Wu pioneered STEM education for women and became MIT’s first female tenured physics professor. Her 1965 book Beta Decay remains a foundational text. Though excluded from the Nobel, she received the inaugural Wolf Prize in Physics in 1978. Today, the American Physical Society awards the Chien-Shiung Wu Prize to outstanding female physicists, cementing her legacy as a breaker of both scientific and gender barriers.