All the stories of Wu Jianxiong's life.

outline

Wu Jianxiong (19 12— 1997), known as the queen of physics, was born in Taicang, Jiangsu Province, and studied at the University of California in 1936. After receiving his doctorate, he stayed in the United States and became a famous Chinese-American physicist.

achievements in scientific research

1956, Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao first put forward the law of parity non-conservation, which overthrew the law of parity conservation, which had long been regarded as the golden rule. In order to prove the correctness of Yang and Li's theory, they stayed in the laboratory almost all day, chewed a loaf of bread when they were hungry, drank a glass of milk when they were thirsty, and slept only four hours a day. Hard work has finally brought fruitful results: it has proved that Yang and Li's laws are correct and caused a sensation in the international physics community. Some people say that Wu Jianxiong solved the first puzzle of atomic physics and nuclear physics.

Honor evaluation

Wu Jianxiong studied under Hsin P. Soh, the "father of China radar". She has completed many significant experiments in atomic spectroscopy and quantum mechanics and won a series of honors. 1974, she was awarded the title of "best scientist of the year" by the American scientific community, and she was the first woman to win this honor. 1975, Wu Jianxiong was elected chairman of american physical society. In the powerful field of American physics, the president of the Physical Society is a woman, which is unprecedented. In the same year, US President Ford awarded her the National Science Medal at the White House. 1978, she was awarded the first prize of $65,438+million by the Wolf Foundation. This award is specially awarded to people who have made special contributions to science and mankind. Wu Jianxiong was the first physicist to win the prize. Wu Jianxiong also received an honorary doctorate from 15 world-famous university. The western scientific community calls her the queen of physics.

The Road to the Queen of Physics

First lady of physics

-Taicang Wu Jianxiong family

It is one of the most dazzling stars of Wu family overseas. When studying in the United States, she obtained a postdoctoral degree in physics, specializing in physics research. She once joined the "Manhattan Project" in the United States and solved the "puzzle". She is the first female chairwoman in the history of american physical society, and won the honor of "the first lady of physical science in the world".

(1) Family background and childhood

Wu Jianxiong, female, born in Liuhe, Taicang, Jiangsu Province, was born on May 3 19 1 2002, and died of a stroke in New York State on February 1997, at the age of 85.

Liuhe, the birthplace of Wu Jianxiong, is about an hour's drive from Shanghai to the Yangtze River, which flows upstream to the southeast. Wu Jianxiong, nicknamed Wei Wei, is the second child of the Wu family, with a brother and a younger brother from top to bottom. In her generation, she is the top word generation, and the second word is adopted in the order of "hero". So my brother's name is Jianying, her name is Xiong Jian, and my brother's name is Hao Jian.

Wu Jianxiong's grandfather Wu Qifeng was a scholar in the late Qing Dynasty. Due to the influence of son preference, Wu Jianxiong's birth did not bring him much joy, so Wu Jianxiong was not arbitrarily favored. But when she was young, Wei Wei was not only beautiful, but also smart, especially in poetry reading, literacy and arithmetic, which made grandpa like this granddaughter more and more. Wu Jianxiong's father Wu Zhongyi was born in 1888. He is an extremely open-minded, insightful and courageous man. Wu Jianxiong was 24 when he was born. He had the closest relationship with Wu Jianxiong and loved Wu Jianxiong very much, which also had the most profound influence on Wu Jianxiong's life.

Wu Zhongyi studied in Taicang County No.3 Primary School when he was a child. After graduation, he was admitted to the famous Nanyang Public School in Shanghai (the predecessor of Shanghai Jiaotong University). The open environment of Nanyang College exposed him to the ideas of freedom and equality in many western countries and read many books on human rights and democracy. Later, I worked in a foreign firm in Shanghai. I am not only good at English, but also well informed. Wu Zhongyi is also a person with a wide range of interests. He is quite accomplished in radio, hunting, playing the organ, singing and reciting classical poems ... He is always ahead of the times, asking questions and keen on learning. Although there is no requirement for children's education, we can see that Wu Jianxiong has been quiet and studious since childhood, and has made great efforts to give her some guidance and teach her some new knowledge. He often reads "Encyclopedia Series" published by Shanghai Commercial Press, and tells Wu Jianxiong some stories about scientists. He also reads some interesting science stories from time to time, from Shanghai Shen Bao to illiterate Wu Jianxiong. Wu Jianxiong worshipped scientists since childhood and was deeply interested in exploring the wonderful knowledge of nature. Especially the crystal receiver assembled by Wu Zhongyi himself fascinated Wu Jianxiong, who was always fascinated by the distant information from the radio. Therefore, Wu Jianxiong and her brother read more books and learned more knowledge than other children.

Not only that, Wu Zhongyi also paid attention to spreading advanced ideas and cultural knowledge to villagers. There was a temple of fire in Liuhe at that time. Because of bandits, the incense was silent for a long time, and its courtyard was used for training by business groups. After the bandits were put down, he persuaded the local squire to take the lead in dismantling the clay sculpture and wood carving in the temple and turned it into a girls' Mingde vocational tutorial school, where he became the principal himself. He also made a crystal receiver himself, not only for himself, but also for his fellow villagers. Because his fellow villagers didn't have any entertainment activities at that time, he went to the teahouse in his spare time, so he sent one to every teahouse, so that the fellow villagers who went to the teahouse had the opportunity to get in touch with the outside world through radio. In summer, you can rent movies in Shanghai for everyone to watch, and you can also achieve some purposes of educating the villagers.

Wu Jianxiong's primary education was conducted in Mingde School founded by his father. This school not only gave Wu Jianxiong some formal education, but also made Wu Jianxiong proud, and was encouraged by her father's process of establishing the school and his pioneering work in the local village.

Before China became a democratic country 1 1 year, despite the turmoil in the outside world, Wu Jianxiong was very lucky. She not only had a beautiful and happy childhood, but also received early family enlightenment education and formal school education after she left Liuhe to study in Suzhou Women's Normal School, 50 miles away from home, which had a very important impact on Wu Jianxiong's future growth.

1. Hu Shi's favorite disciple

1923, eleven-year-old Wu Jianxiong took the entrance examination of Suzhou No.2 Women's Teachers College. Among nearly 10,000 candidates, she ranks ninth among 200 female teachers. Suzhou No.2 Women's Normal School was a well-known school at that time. In addition to hiring many excellent teachers to teach the new course # 1-, we often invite famous scholars to give lectures in our school, even many of them are well-known foreign scholars. Mr. Hu Shi is one of many famous scholars invited to give a speech in our school. In fact, before Hu Shi came to the school to give a speech, Wu Jianxiong read Hu Shi's articles in magazines such as New Youth and Efforts Weekly in the library. She has long yearned for the young Peking University professor's novel idea of studying in the United States and trying to transform old China after returning home.

When Hu Shi came to Suzhou Women's Normal School to give a speech, Wu Jianxiong had been there for some time. Because the headmaster Yang knows that the article is well written and admires Hu Shi, please be responsible for recording and sorting out Mr. Hu's speech. The topic of Hu Shi's speech is modern women, and it is about how women should get out of the old tradition ideologically. To illustrate the relationship between moral standards and living standards, Mr. Hu also cited an example, saying that an extremely poor old lady in China made a living by collecting garbage. If she accidentally finds money or something of value in the garbage, she will never give it back to others. His thought of objectively evaluating human nature, compared with some old ideas advocating moral cultivation, gave Wu Jianxiong great inspiration. After listening to Hu's speech in a girls' middle school, I came to Soochow University nearby to listen to Hu's speech the next day. On that day, I talked about women in the new era and social transformation. These new ideas make young heroes' thoughts surge and their blood boil.

Wu Jianxiong of Suzhou Women's Normal University, although very young among her classmates, soon became the favorite of her classmates and teachers because of her cleverness. 1929, Wu Jianxiong graduated from Suzhou Women's Normal College with the best results and was sent to Nanjing Central University. According to the regulations, teachers should teach and serve for one year before continuing their studies. However, at that time, this rule was not so strict. Therefore, Wu Jianxiong didn't teach in this year, but went to China College in Shanghai, in order to make up for his weak subjects and lay a solid cultural foundation for his study in CUHK one year later. China College is the first private university in China. 1906 was founded by students studying in Japan who collectively dropped out of school and returned to China because of their aversion to Japanese discrimination. Hu Shi also studied here in his early years. Although he was teaching at Peking University at that time, he was also the president of China College, and he made great contributions to the school. In addition to hiring many first-class scholars to teach, he also taught a course of cultural history.

Hu Shi was a well-known scholar in China at that time. His charming writing style and extensive talents made him a star figure. His class at China College is two hours once a week. Every time Hu Shi comes to Shanghai from Peiping for class, he always talks for two hours. Because there are too many people in class, the general classroom can't sit down, so he takes classes in the auditorium.

At first, Hu Shi didn't know Wu Jianxiong, because an exam made Hu Shi know that he had an excellent student-Wu Jianxiong. In that exam, Wu Jianxiong sat in front of the middle, just in front of Hu Shi. The exam lasted three hours, but Wu Jianxiong finished the exam in the first two hours and was the first to hand in the test paper. Wu Jianxiong heard Hu Bin say, "Ha, we have a man here. She sat up straight and took the exam. I never stopped trying to write, and I finished it in less than two hours. "

Hu Shi quickly finished the examination paper and sent it to the academic affairs office. It happened that Yang Honglie and Ma were also here. Hu Shi said that he had never seen a student know so thoroughly about the 300-year history of thought in the Qing Dynasty. I gave her a hundred points. Yang Honglie and Ma also said that there was a girl in the class who kept getting 100, so the three of them wrote down the student's name. As a result, they took out a pair and all three wrote Wu Jianxiong.

The mentoring experience of Wu Jianxiong and Hu Shi not only had a profound influence on her in Wu Jianxiong's view, but Hu Shi also said in public that it was the proudest thing in his life. In addition to mathematics, literature and history courses, Wu Jianxiong also studied writing under the famous female writer Huang Baiwei at that time. Wu Jianxiong once went to Wusong from Shanghai and saw the hardships of a family on the boat at Wusongkou, so he wrote an article to Huang Baiwei. Huang Baiwei thought the writing was excellent and was greatly moved. She also wrote a letter of encouragement and sent it to Wu Jianxiong's dormitory in Wusong China College.

In the year of China College, Wu Jianxiong made all kinds of preparations for formally entering Nanjing Central University. Because she is going to Central University to study science, but she feels that she has not learned enough in this field, so she is not at ease. Knowing his daughter's thoughts, the father not only encouraged Wu Jianxiong to go forward despite difficulties, but also specially bought three math books: a triangle, a Fann algebra and a geometry. During the summer vacation, Wu Jianxiong taught herself at home and learned what she couldn't learn in normal courses. This experience made her develop the habit of self-study.

In the learning process of Wu Jianxiong's growth, she was taught and encouraged by many teachers, but it was her father and teacher Hu Shi who gave her the most profound enlightenment and guidance. For her father, Wu Jianxiong always remembers many of his new ideas and viewpoints. Although her father is strict in her education, he respects her very much. Hu Shi's influence on Wu Jianxiong is far-reaching, because Hu Shi not only taught her at China College, but also met and talked with Wu Jianxiong many times in China and many places in the United States. Hu Shi was very appreciative of Wu Jianxiong and had high hopes. Later, when he was traveling, he saw a collection of letters from Rutherford, a great British physicist, in a bookstore. He thought that Wu Jianxiong, who had studied physics in the United States at that time, would feel that he was very excited about his life.

2. embark on the road of specializing in physics

/kloc-in the autumn of 0/930, Wu Jianxiong officially entered Nanjing Central University. When she first entered CUHK, Wu Jianxiong studied mathematics, but she gradually felt that her greatest interest was physics, so a year later, she resolutely transferred to the Department of Physics. At that time, there were many famous teachers in the physics department of CUHK, such as Fang Guangqi, head of the optics department, who studied in Shih-Yuan Sze in Europe with Madame Curie, and later became a famous astronomer in China, Yuzhe Zhang, director of Nanjing Purple Mountain Observatory, and Nee Sangta, who taught electromagnetism. These teachers played a vital role in Wu Jianxiong's becoming a key figure in physics. At first, Wu Jianxiong shared a dormitory with others in CUHK and didn't take part in many entertainment activities. However, in order to concentrate on her studies, she simply moved into a single dormitory. Wu Jianxiong's attitude towards learning is extremely serious. He often thinks about a question alone at night and doesn't sleep without an answer. After living in a single dormitory, she is often seen sitting alone reading and thinking by flickering candlelight. During this period, my favorite uncle Wu often drives to pick her up, goes out with her classmates on holidays, or eats out. Wu Jianxiong sometimes goes out together, and sometimes she refuses to go, so she stays at school during the holidays. Wu Jianxiong is not only gifted in mathematical physics, but also interested in art, literature and history. He also has his own set of views, which are highly praised by his classmates and friends. But Wu Jianxiong was never proud and made many good friends. She not only has old friends such as Wu Ziwo and Shi Renfan, but also makes many new friends. A friend of mine is Zhu Ruhua, who studies chemistry. She later became an outstanding scholar and made outstanding achievements in the United States. The other is Dong Ruofen, who is a fellow countryman with Wu Jianxiong, and later went to study in the United States by boat; There is also a very special girlfriend, Cao, who is the half-sister of Hu Shi's second sister. She is very talented and once had an affair with Hu Shi. Every time Hu Shi visited Cao in CUHK, Cao always cooked a few dishes and invited him to have dinner together, so he became more familiar with Hu Shi. Of course, Wu Jianxiong also has some friends of the opposite sex, but during her four years in CUHK, the focus of her life was knowledge, and she was never distracted by the love between men and women.

One year after entering CUHK, the "September 18th Incident" of Japanese invasion broke out in the northeast of China, and the "December 28th Incident" of Japanese landing in Songhu broke out the following year. At that time, the whole country was boiling, people were furious, and young students also held demonstrations and demanded a tough attitude towards Japan.

Under the impact of this turbulent era, Wu Jianxiong is more and more aware that only by cultivating its own strength for a long time can it have the strength to get out of the predicament in the future. Therefore, after occasionally participating in demonstrations and petitions, his biggest mind is to concentrate on the research of physical science. At the same time, she is also auditing other courses in the School of Science, so she is highly appreciated by her classmates and teachers. Her teachers, such as Shih-Yuan Sze and Fang Guangqi, appreciate her more. Even some teachers who don't teach her classes think she has a bright future. After four years of hard work, Wu Jianxiong graduated from Central University with a score of 1934. She first went to Zhejiang University as a teaching assistant for one year. At that time, Zhejiang University was known as "Oriental Cambridge". Wang, the "father of China's hydrogen bomb", once taught in this school, and Mr. Wang, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, also left here after graduating from university. When Wu Jianxiong arrived at the Institute of Physics, she worked with Gu Jingwei who came back from the University of Michigan with a doctorate. These two ambitious new women want to pry into the secrets of atoms. They measure the spectrum of a gas at low temperature, bury themselves in a dark room day and night, and almost forget to eat or sleep. At that time, after lunch in the physics institute, everyone could take a nap. Some people doze off at their desks, while others walk in the sun. Wu Jianxiong not only often forgets to eat, but even works like this on Sundays. In order to gain more knowledge, at this time, Wu Jianxiong has decided to go abroad for further study. Therefore, she studies English hard at the same time. Gu Jingwei supports and encourages her idea very much. Hu Shi, who admired her most in those days, once came to the Institute of Physics and especially found her laboratory to see her. Wu Jianxiong was overjoyed and strengthened his determination to study abroad.

1in July, 936, Wu Jianxiong got the financial support from his uncle and prepared to study at the University of Michigan in the United States. One day in August of the same year, Wu Jianxiong's parents, family, relatives and friends gathered at Huangpu Bund to see her off. Accompanied by her fellow countryman Dong Ruofen. I thought I had only been abroad for a few years, and I would soon learn knowledge and go home. But I didn't know that this trip was 37 years apart, and she never saw her beloved parents again.

3. Dr. Xiang Keli

First, I went to San Francisco to visit a female classmate named Lin. She wanted to go to the University of Michigan in a week, but she suddenly changed her mind and stayed in Berkeley, California.

It turns out that the female classmate's husband, Mr. Guo, teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. Through Mr Guo's introduction, he got to know the President of China Student Union in Berkeley. This man is very active and enthusiastic. He introduced Wu Jianxiong to Yuan Jialiu, a China student who just came here two weeks ago to study physics. Yuan Jialiu is the grandson of Yuan Shikai, an important official in the late Qing Dynasty and an important figure in the early Republic of China. At that time, Wu Jianxiong did not know the relationship between Yuan Jialiu and Yuan Shikai. Led by Yuan Jialiu, Wu Jianxiong visited the Berkeley campus built on the mountain. Wu Jianxiong, who has done X-ray crystal diffraction spectrum experiments in China, was excited and frequently asked questions when he saw various experiments in Berkeley Physics Department. Of course, what impressed Wu Jianxiong most was a 37-inch cyclotron in the Radiology Laboratory, which could be used to accelerate charged particles, impact different nuclei and carry out the most popular nuclear experiments at that time, and a group of young and top physicists in Berkeley Department of Physics, such as Lawrence, who invented and built the cyclotron, and Oppenheimer, a brilliant young theoretical physicist. Brilliant Wu Jianxiong has an outstanding vision for the development of physical science and a strong motivation for achievement. She soon discovered the irresistible attraction of Berkeley's physics department, and thought it was her dream to explore scientific knowledge. To this end, she resolutely decided to stay in Black Lake.

So accompanied by Yuan Jialiu, she went to see Becky, then the head of the physics department at Berkeley. Although Becky is prejudiced against China and China women, it does not prevent him from seeing Wu Jianxiong's extraordinary talent in physics. Becky knows that to be a good physics department, she should accept first-class students as well as first-class teachers. Therefore, although the school has started, Becky accepted Wu Jianxiong's application as an exception and welcomed her to the Berkeley Institute of Physics.

Wu Jianxiong stayed in Berkeley and lived in an international dormitory not far from the school. Besides science, she also studies English hard and understands American affairs. But there are two things, but she has always maintained the flavor of China, and one of them is clothes. Wu Jianxiong's clothes have always been Chinese high-necked cheongsam, and the other is diet. Wu Jianxiong is so unaccustomed to the foreign food in the student canteen that he can't even eat enough. In order to eat delicious China food, with the help of a friend, she found a China restaurant outside the campus. The owner of the restaurant was very kind and promised Wu Jianxiong only $25 for a meal. * * * Four dishes and one soup, she can eat whatever she wants, but she can't order. She can give anything in the shop. Wu Jianxiong thinks it's delicious and economical, so he often goes there to eat, and sometimes brings his classmates and friends. Yuan Jialiu, ursula and Lamb are all regular guests invited by Wu Jianxiong, and he met them later.

In the first two years at Berkeley Institute of Physics, Wu Jianxiong had classes with his classmates, with about fifteen people. A year later, Wu Jianxiong got good grades and wanted to apply for a scholarship. At that time, the United States was very discriminatory against orientals, and it had never given scholarships to orientals in the past. Bai Ji, the dean of the department, was afraid that something would go wrong with the board of directors, so he had to give Wu Jianxiong and Yuan Jialiu less money to study. Therefore, Yuan Jialiu had to transfer to California Institute of Technology, where he could get a scholarship, which also caused great displeasure to Bekele, head of the Department of Physics.

Wu Jianxiong continued to stay in the physics department of Berkeley, and continued to listen to lectures and learn knowledge. After the first two years of general courses, Wu Jianxiong will begin to prepare her doctoral thesis report, that is to say, she will start to look for a tutor, choose an experimental topic, and get the entry qualification for long-term scientific experiments in the future. Lawrence is a great scientist, nominally the director of Berkeley Radiation Laboratory. He instructs Wu Jianxiong to do experiments. In fact, it was segre who did some famous nuclear experiments in Rome with the great scientist Fermi in the 1920s.

1938, the first experiment in Wu Jianxiong was directed by Lawrence, and the topic was to explore the phenomenon that radioactive lead was excited to produce two forms of X-rays due to the release of electrons from oral decay. This work is directly related to the theoretical work of famous scientists at that time, such as Uhlenbeck, Bert and Hejret. 1939+1After the news of uranium nuclear fission was officially announced in June, scientists in the field of nuclear physics all over the world could not wait to carry out related experiments.

1939 Wu Jianxiong experiment directed by Seguli is also the product of studying uranium nuclear fission. This series of experiments is of great significance to Wu Jianxiong. First of all, although these experiments were directed by Seguli, most of them were independently completed by Wu Jianxiong. In addition, one of the achievements made a key contribution to the Manhattan project of building an atomic bomb in the United States.

Wu Jianxiong's initial experimental work was precise and meticulous, so her nominal tutor Lawrence and Segrega, who actually worked with her, spoke highly of her. She often works late in the laboratory because the department is worried that she will hit the hall in the middle of the night without delivering an umbrella. She plays with Wilson, another classmate who often works late in the lab, and drives Wu Jianxiong back in his old car. Wu Jianxiong usually comes home at three or four in the morning.

Wu Jianxiong received his doctorate at 1940. Her research papers are the two studies mentioned above. These two studies were not only written as papers, but also published in the most important international journal Physical Review. The experimental results are also of great significance in science. After receiving his degree, Wu Jianxiong went on to do postdoctoral research in Berkeley for two years. Her experimental work is to study the fission products of uranium and radioactive isotopes of some elements, so she often uses neutron beams generated by cyclotron to hit the target. At that time, Lawrence always emphasized the role of accelerator application in cancer treatment in order to get the construction fund of cyclotron, so some patients were indeed receiving radiotherapy. Wu Jianxiong usually gets up at six o'clock in the morning. As soon as the patient stops treatment, she starts to work.

Wu Jianxiong's outstanding work in nuclear fission and radioisotopes has made her an "authoritative expert" in the mouth of many great scientists such as Oppenheimer, and she is often invited to talk about some topics in this field at seminars. Even when someone asked Segurie to talk about nuclear fission, he wanted to build a shed in the south! Wu Jianxiong devoted herself to scientific research, but she didn't forget the purpose of going abroad. After the Sino-Japanese War broke out, she once thought about whether to return to China. Later, Japan launched the Pacific War, and the route mail was cut off, so that she could not see the rural customs.

Wu Jianxiong's outstanding talent, hard work, charming appearance, elegant temperament and cheerful personality attracted many male students to pursue her, but it was Yuan Jialiu who eventually became her lifelong companion. They got married on May 30th, 1942 in Pasadena, Los Angeles, where California Institute of Technology is located. After marriage, they came to work on the east coast of the United States. Wu Jianxiong accepted the appointment of Smith Women's College, while Yuan Jialiu was engaged in national defense research in RCA Company. The following year, Wu Jianxiong went to teach at Princeton University, an Ivy League school located on the east coast of the United States, and they also moved to Princeton.