Ta-You Wu

Who was Ta-You Wu?

Wu Ta-You was a Chinese-born atomic and nuclear theoretical physicist who worked in the United States, Canada, mainland China, and Taiwan. He has been called the "Father of Chinese Physics."

Wu was born in Panyu, Guangzhou. In 1929 he took his undergraduate degree at Nankai University in Tianjin. He moved to the United States for graduate schooling and took a Doctor of Philosophy Degree from the University of Michigan in 1933. Dr. Wu returned to China, and between 1934 and 1949 he taught at various institutions there, including Peking University in Beijing, and National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming. In 1949, the year of the defeat of the Communists over the Nationalists in the Chinese Civil War, Wu fled to Canada. There he headed the Theoretical Physics Division of the National Research Council until 1963. In the late 1960s, he was chair of the department of Physics and Astronomy at the University at Buffalo. After 1962, he held various positions in Taiwan, including President of the Academia Sinica. He continued lecturing into his 90s and died on March 4, 2000.