​"The main stumbling block in the way of any progress is and always has been unimpeachable tradition."

• PHYSICIST
  
• Specialized in creating complex experiments to answer some of science's peskiest questions
• Highly educated as a child, which was rare in early 20th century China
• Enrolled in a teacher training program at an all girls' boarding school, but ended up borrowing books from her friends in the science and math programs and taught herself physics, chemistry, and mathematics
• Earned her bachelor's degree in math and physics from the National Central University in Nanjing, China, then traveled to America to earn her doctorate
• FIRST woman instructor at Princeton University
• Worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II, developing the process that turned uranium into nuclear fuel, as well as a radiation detector
• In the late forties and early fifties she developed an experiment that settled a longstanding debate in physics by proving Enrico Fermi's 1933 theory on beta decay
• Her book on beta decay is still considered the authoritative text on the subject
• Became a US citizen in 1954
• Asked by physicists Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang to help prove their new theory of parity, which contradicted the established and accepted Parity Law; Wu designed an experiment that did so, but was not recognized for her contributions when Lee and Yang were given the Nobel Prize
• FIRST woman president of the American Physical Society
• Actively promoted science as a career path for women
• Received many awards, including an Achievement Award from the American Association of University Women, the Comstock Award from the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Medal of Science

Bibliography: Edwards, Sue Bradford. Women in Science. Minneapolis: Abdo Publishing, 2017. Print.
Green, Jen. Women in Science. New York: Penguin Random House, 2018. Print.
Harvey, Joy and Marilyn B. Ogilvie. "Wu Chien-Shiung." The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science, Vol. 2. Routledge, 2000, 1409-1410.
Ignotofsky, Rachel. Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2016. Print.
Smeltzer, Ronald K. "Chien-Shiung Wu." Extraordinary Women in Science & Medicine: Four Centuries of Achievement, The Grolier Club, 2013, 68-72.

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