In the town of Liuhe, China, the Wu family celebrated the birth of a baby girl. Unlike many people at this time, the Wu's did not hold the common view that girls were not as smart as boys and therefore should not attend school. Instead they believed their daughter would be both smart and brave and so they named her Chien Shiung which means "courageous hero".
Before Chien Shiung's birth her parents were already actively involved in the education of girls. Her father had left his engineering job to open a school for girls and her mother encouraged families in their village to send their daughters to school.
In Suzhou, Chien Shiung enrolled in the teacher training program but she also taught herself from the academic program which covered the sciences.By day she studied her own program, at night she did what she called "self-learning" from the academic textbooks borrowed from friends.
Because of her hard work, Chien Shiung was seen as a leader and eventually came to lead a student underground group that was fighting against the government.
When she was seventeen-years-old, Chien Shiung graduated with top honours and continued her studies in Nanjing at the National Central University to study physics. At university, she continued to be an influential student leader attempting to get General Chiang Kai Shek resist the invasion of China by the Japanese prior to World War II.
In 1936, Chien Shiung left China and travelled to Berkeley, California to continue her study of physics. She was particularly interested in the study of atoms and beta decay. From this point on, her studies on the atom would lead to Chien Shiung understanding beta decay better than almost anyone in the world. As she solved problem after problem, Chien Shiung unfortunately received little recognition, never winning a Nobel Prize for some of her most valuable research. However, she came to be known as the Queen of Physics.
Discussion
Most adult readers will probably never have heard of Wu Chien Shiung and therefore know little about her incredible contributions to the field of atomic physics. But Queen of Physics will give readers of all ages, the important details of Chien Shiung's life and her research in the interesting format of a picture book.
Chien Shiung Wu was born on May 31, 1912 to Wu Zhong-Yi and Fan Fu-Hua. She had an older brother Chien-Ying and a younger brother Chein-Hau. In Queen of Physics, Robeson emphasizes the role Chien Shiung's parents played in her development as a scientist. It was their belief that girls could accomplish as much as boys and that girls should be allowed an education. Although Robeson doesn't go into much detail in this children's picture book, in the autobiography, Madame Wu Chien-shiung: The First Lady of Physics Research by Tsai-chien Tiang, Chien-Shiung's father was a major force in her youth. Wu Zong-Yi was a progressive and knowledgeable man who was very close to his only daughter. He was well read and exposed to the Western ideas of democracy and freedom, but he also valued Chinese culture and traditions. He wanted his children to be prepared for the changes that he felt were coming. He recognized the Chien Shiung was gifted and set about to help her cultivate those gifts. This close relationship and mentorship between father and daughter is a feature many famous and accomplished women scientists share.
Chien Shiung also worked hard to achieve the success her parents believed she was capable of but this success came at the price of never again seeing her parents when she left for the United States in 1936. World War II and the Communist revolution prevented her from returning while her parents were still alive.
Queen of Physics also highlights the difficulties women scientists have had in achieving recognition of their outstanding achievements. Robeson describes how Chien Shiung made at least three significant contributions to particle physics, each important to the work of other scientists. Despite this, her contributions all of which were major discoveries, were not recognized along with those whose research she helped, when the Nobel Prizes were awarded. In this regard, Chien Shiung was in good company with the likes of Rosalind Franklin, Lise Meitner, Vera Rubin and many other stellar women scientists whose contributions went unrecognized for decades.
Robeson interesting biography is accompanied by the artwork of Rebecca Huang which incorporates features of Chinese culture and mathematics and physics notations. Included is a Glossary of terms used in the biography, a short note on Wu Chien Shiung's life, a Bibliography and suggestions for further reading.
Book Details:
Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom by Teresa Robeson
New York: Sterling Children's Books 2019
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