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Science magazine reported, "A Chinese-American physicist whose name many people have never heard will soon share a rare honor typically bestowed on the field's mononymous greats: Einstein, Fermi, Feynman. On 11 February, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will issue a stamp commemorating Chien-Shiung Wu, because Wu, in 1956, essentially proved that the universe knows its right hand from its left."
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It's worth mentioning that Wu is one of the distinguished alumni of Southeast University (SEU). In 1930, she was recommended to study at the Department of Mathematics, National Central University (the predecessor of SEU). A year later, she, out of her passion for physics, was transferred from the Department of Mathematics to the Department of Physics. After graduation, she was working in a physics lab in China. Her mentor, Dr. Jing-Wei Gu, another female working in the field of physics, encouraged Chien-Shiung to further her research in the United States.
Chien-Shiung Wu was a Chinese immigrant who became a nuclear physicist in an almost entirely male-dominated field in the 1950s. She worked with Oppenheimer and Fermi on the Manhattan Project, helping develop the method for separating nonfissionable uranium 238 from fissionable U-235—the bomb's key fuel. Her experiment on the non-conservation of parity disproved a fundamental law of physics that had been considered incontrovertible for 30 years. In 1956, Wu proved that the universe knows its right hand from its left.
Chien-Shiung Wu had a lifetime relationship with SEU. In 1973, she visited her alma mater SEU when she returned to the motherland for the first time. After that, she visited SEU for many times to discuss the development plans with the school together. In 1988, the alma mater was renamed to Southeast University. Upon hearing the news, the couple felt very excited and eagerly wrote the inscription that "The new atmosphere and spirit of the alma mater much impressed us". In 1990, Chien-Shiung Wu was appointed by SEU as Honorary Director of the School Affairs Committee, Honorary Chairman of the Alumni Association and Honorary Professor. On June 6, 1992 when SEU celebrated its 90th anniversary, the couple came afar from the United States specially to participate in the celebrations.
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In order to commemorate this distinguished physicist, it was approved by CPC central committee and the State Council in 1999 to erect Chien-Shiung Wu Memorial Hall at SEU, which was the first Chinese scientist memorial hall approved by Chinese government and has also been functioning as the national science popularization and education base. On May 31, 2002, which also witnessed the 90-year anniversary of Chien-Shiung Wu's birth, SEU held a grand opening ceremony of the hall.
Located at the southwest side of the Auditorium of SEU, with a total investment of about RMB 20 million, Chien-Shiung Wu Memorial Hall has 4 floors in total and 1 underground floor, with a construction area of 2,129 square meters. The memorial looks solemn and simple in shape. It not only displays Chien-Shiung Wu's lifetime achievements, but also exhibits a large number of remains donated by her relatives and Columbia University, including medals, awards, certificates, letters of appointment, related documents, books, paintings and calligraphies presented by her friends, as well as daily necessities of Chien-Shiung Wu and her husband Mr. Yuan Jialiu during their lifetime.
"The committee is looking forward to issuing more stamps regarding sciences and diversifying the figures thereon", said Gicker, Director in charge of stamp services at USPS. "We expect to engage a viewer through a small piece of 1-inch-by-1-inch work of art to ask, 'Who is this and what did he/she do?'" He added, "you should be on the lookout for more prominent females engaged in sciences in the future."
Read more
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/postage-stamp-honor-female-physicist-who-many-say-should-have-won-nobel-prize
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