Chien-Shiung Wu was a trailblazing experimental physicist who became known as the ‘First Lady of Physics’, the ‘Queen of Nuclear Research’ and the ‘Chinese Marie Curie’.
Wu was born in China in 1912, in a small town near Shanghai. Encouraged by her father, a staunch advocate for women’s education, Wu completed her schooling and a degree in physics at the National Central University in Nanking (China), graduating top of her class. While working in a physics lab in China, her mentor, another female physicist, encouraged her to continue her studies in the USA, so in 1936 she moved there to do a PhD. As a result of World War II and the Chinese Civil War, this was to be the last time she saw her parents, and she did not return to China until 1973.
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