CHINESE JOURNAL OF PHYSICS VOL. 35, NO.

6-11 DECEMBER 1997

Professor T. Y. Wu and Physics

Chen Ning Yang

State University of New York, Stony Brook, iVew York 1179,$-3&O, U.S.A.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong K o n g
(Received August 5, 1997)

PACS. 01.65.+g - History of science.

Professor Ta-You Wu was born on September 29, 1907, in Guangzhou ( @+l\l ). His
grandfather Guei-Dan Wu ( %@fiff , !it%kfi, 1855-1902) attained the scholastic rank of
Jun Shi ( g+ ), and was an official in the Grand Academy ( $$#$E ). His father Guo- Ji
Wu ( $I$@& , 1879 ? - 1911) attained the scholastic rank of Ju Ren ( @A ). Professor
Wu graduated in 1920 from a school in Guangzhou and matriculated next year in the
Nankai Middle School ( fi&j$3 ) in Tianjin ( *#z ). He then spent four years at Nankai
University, graduating in 1929. In 1931 he went to the USA and became a graduate student
at the University of Michigan. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1933 he remained for one year
doing research at the University of Michigan, returning to China in 1934 to teach at the
University of P ekmg (now Beijing University).

During the Sino-Japanese war Professor Wu taught in the physics department at the
National Southwest Associated University in Kunming ( E% ). He went to the USA again
in 1946 and taught (1946-1949) at the University of Michigan and Columbia University.
From 1949-1963 he was Head of the Theoretical Division of the Physics Institute of the
National Research Council of Canada. From 1963 to 1978 he taught successively at the
New York Polytechnical Institute and at SUNY-Buffalo. He retired from the latter in 1978
and moved to Taiwan. He came out of retirement in 1983 and for the next eleven years,
1983 to 1994, as President of Academia Sinica in Taipei, led the Academy through a phase
of rapid expansion and upgrading of research quality.

It is not possible for me to detail all the important contributions of Professor Wu in

his long career. I shall concentrate only on some aspects of his contribution to physics and
on his influence on physicists.

Professor Wus research in physics covers a wide range, including almost all the areas
of modern theoretical physics: molecular physics, atomic physics, nuclear physics, plasma
physics, scattering theory, statistical physics, astrophysics and atmospheric physics. He
has published ten monographs, over one hundred technical articles and seven textbooks for
graduate students. I cannot discuss here in detail Professor Wus work in all these areas. I
shall thus go into only a couple of items.

737 @ 1997 THE PHYSICAL SOCIETY

OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA
 738 PROFESSOR T. Y. WU AND PHYSICS VOL. 35

Professor Wus Ph.D. thesis work was done during the year 1932 to 1933 on a subject
that he had found for himself: In the periodic table of elements where the 5f shell is
being filled up, he believed, there may start a new series of 14 elements, similar in their
chemical properties - a situation analogous to the series of rare-earth elements. He wanted
to investigate if, and at what Z, this second rare-earth series may begin. To think of
such a problem shows maturity, taste and good physical insight on the part of the young
graduate student. Technically its solution required a proper treatment of a double well
potential which Wu successfully found, again by himself.

The work was published first in a short letter and then a full paper:
Ta - You Wu and S. Goudsmit, Physical Review, 43, 496 (1933),
Ta - You Wu Physical Review, 44, 727 (1933).
Goudsmit was Wus thesis adviser, but did not initiate or contribute to the work.

Wus result was that near Uranium (Z = 92) there will start the second rare-earth
series. Unfortunately few physicists and chemists were interested in elements heavier than
Uranium in those years. Thus the paper did not attract much attention. After the discovery
of the phenomena of fission, transuranium elements became a hot topic, starting around
1940. To find their chemical properties, i.e. their positions in the periodic table, thus
became a very important theoretical topic.

In 1941, M. G. Mayer (1906-1972, Nobel physics prize winner of 1963), at the sug-
gestion of Fermi, made a calculation which was essentially the same as Wus, arriving at
essentially the same conclusions [Physical Review, 60, 184 (1941).]. She evidently did not
know about Wus work of 1933. It was only after her papers publication that someone
pointed out to her the earlier papers of Wu.

After Professor Wu returned to China in 1934, he taught first in Peking University

and then during the wartime in the National Southwest Associated University, altogether
for twelve years. Hundreds of students had taken his courses in these years. He also guided
many in their research. Among his colleagues and students the following had done research
work with him: H. C. Cheng ( $$@E#& ), C. F. Hsueh ( i$$@fi ), A. T. Kiang ( $122 ),
S. T. Ma ( ,s{&@ ), S. T. Shen ( e%@ ), K un Huang ( $$E ), C. N. Yang ( @?&$~ )
and others. In 1946 he specially selected two students, K. Y. Chu ( %%a ) and T. D. Lee
( Q@g ), to go to the USA with him for graduate education, a move of great importance
to these two who later became famous physicists.

Professor Wu is the third Chinese to have received a Ph.D. in theoretical physics.

Before him there were S. C. Wang ( 33% , 1927 Ph.D. at Columbia University) and P. Y.
Chou ( m@@, 1928 Ph.D. at Cal. Tech.). P ro f essor Wang taught at Zhejiang University
and Peking University for short periods after returning to China. He then entered into
government service. Professor Chou (in Pin-yin, Zhou), after returning to China, taught
at Tsinghua University, National Southwest Associated University, then Peking University.
He was the one who introduced the research areas of general relativity and hydrodynamics
into China.

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 VOL. 35 CHEN NING YANG 739

Professor Wu was the one who introduced to hundreds of Chinese students and re-
search workers quantum mechanics. As we all know quantum mechanics not only revolution-
ized physics and chemistry, it also created new industries. The semiconductor, computer,
laser and information industries were not possible without quantum mechanics. Students
of Professor Wu, and their students, played essential roles in all of these academic and
industrial developments in China in the last sixty years.

The eight years of Sino-Japanese war was a very difficult period for everyone in
Kunming. To add to Professor Wus problems was the fact that Mrs. Wu was not well
and needed constant bedside care. Under such difficult circumstances, Professor Wu wrote
during 1938 to 1939 an authoritative monograph: Vibrational Spectra and Structure of
Polyatomic Molecules, which was published in Shanghai. This book became an encyclopedia
of the field. When in 1946 Edwards Publisher reprinted a number of important monographs
on various topics in physics (including e.g. Paulis long article of 1933 in the Handbuch der
Physik), Wus book was one of them.

In his distinguished academic career Professor Wu has influenced many physicists of

several generations and has left his imprint on several institutes in mainland China, the
USA, Canada and Taiwan. I shall not further detail these, but please allow me to recall
two events from my personal life.

In the spring of 1942, I was a senior at the National Southwest Associated University
in Kunming. To find a topic for my B.Sc. degree thesis, I went to Professor Wu. He agreed
to oversee my thesis and introduced me to the relationship between symmetry principle in
physics and group theory. This introduction was of determining importance to my later
career. On October 31, 1957, upon learning that I was going to receive, together with T. D.
Lee, that years Nobel Prize, I wrote a letter to Professor Wu. That letter and his response
are reprinted below as Figures 1 and 2.

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740 PROFESSOR T. Y. WU AND PHYSICS VOL. 35

THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY

PRINCBTON, NEW J E R S E Y

Octbber 31, 1957

At this moment of great excitement, at also calls for

deep personal reflection, it is my privilege express to you my
deep gratitude for having initiated me into t
la-28 and group theory In the Spring
tmbaequem work, including the pari raceable directly
or indirectly to the ideas that I bhat Spring fifteen
years ago. This is sanething d an urge to tell.
you, but today is a particulti
With
As ever,

FIG. 1.
VOL. 35 CHEN NING Y.A?jG 741

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

CANADA

DIVISION OF PURE P H Y S I C S .

O TTAWA 2.
Dec. 4, 1958
Dear Yang:
Your beautifully put letter at the same time made me
happy and embarassed me indeed. Although I do not doubt
the sincerity and thoughtfulness of pour letter, I do not
believe I had contributed much, certainly not group theory,
to your physics. Naturally I cannot help being proud of
the fact that chanae had put gou in my class; but my real
satisfaction or self indulgence is that I was able to
appreciate your worth, and that of Lee, 15 years ( 12 in
the case of Lde) a o. Of course the news of your being
awarded the Nobel Brize brought us a great joy - in fact,
a feeling that could not be expressed adequately by any
message of congratulatkons to you.
The follafing Monday after the news of your being
awarded the Prize came over the radio, I gave a talk here
in which I tried to explain the meaning of parity conserva-
tion in general to the people here and to emphasize the
si@fiaance of your work and the experimental work of C. S.
Wu et al. I have written up my lecture notes and I am
enclosing a copy of them. I would appreciate your comments.
When are you going to Stockholm for the cerLmony ? I
heard that your mother-in-law will be there too at the
ceremony. By the way, she asked us to bring you two tins
of tea last Spring at Taiwan. When we came back, you were
in Europe so we did send then to you. we shall send them
out in a few days.
dith best wishes.
Yours sincerely,

FIG. 2.