The Resume

(May 31, 1912-February 16, 1997)
Born in Liuhe, China
Experimental physicist
Expert in beta decay of radioactive elements
Provided experimental verification of Enrico Fermi’s theory of beta decay
Conducted an experiment that proved that conservation of parity (essentially, that subatomic particles do not have left-handed and right-handed versions) was violated by the weak nuclear force (1956)
Wrote the textbook ‘Beta Decay’ (1966)
Became a US citizen (1954)
Known as ‘the first lady of physics’ and ‘the Marie Curie of China’

Why she might be annoying:

Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang, the theoretical physicists who predicted that parity would not be conserved, received the Nobel Prize in Physics (1957), while she was passed over.
It took until 1975 for her salary to equal that of her male colleagues.
Students in her classes called her ‘the Dragon Lady.’

Why she might not be annoying:

After leaving China to study in the United States, she would never see her parents again, as the Sino-Japanese War, World War II, the Chinese Civil War, and the Cold War would keep her from returning during their lifetimes.
She was married to fellow physicist Luke Chia-Liu Yuan for 54 years.
She worked on the Manhattan Project (the US project to build the atomic bomb), where she helped develop the process to separate uranium into the isotopes U-235 and U-238 by gaseous diffusion.
Commenting on gender discrimination in the sciences, she said, ‘I wonder whether the atoms and nuclei, or the mathematical symbols, or the DNA molecules have any preference for either masculine or feminine treatment.’
She was the first woman named President of the American Physical Society (1975).

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• 20th Century Scientists
• An Asteroid was Named in My Honor (Ranked: 2752)
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 80]
• Celebrities Born on the Same Date [May] (Ranked: 5311912)
• I am on a U.S. Postage Stamp [U-Z]
• I Attended University of California, Berkeley
• I Died in 1997 (Ranked: 84)
• I Earned a Doctorate
• I was Cremated
• Look at Me, I'm Postage
• Manhattan Project
• Man's World
• National Women's Hall of Fame (Ranked: 1998)
• Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity
• Profiles 51056-51250 (Ranked: 51189)
• Scientists
• Time’s 100 Women of the Year [1920-2020] (Ranked: 1945)
• We Celebrated Our Golden Anniversary

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 23.08% Annoying