Chinese-American physicist Tsung-Dao Lee, who in 1957 became the second-youngest scientist to receive a Nobel Prize, died Sunday at his home in San Francisco at age 97, according to a Chinese university and a research center.
Lee, whose work advanced the understanding of particle physics, was one of the great masters in the field, according to a joint obituary released Monday by the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the Beijing-based China Center for Advanced Science and Technology.
Lee, a naturalized U.S. citizen since 1962, was also a professor emeritus at Columbia University in New York.
Photo: grab from Nobel Web
Robert Oppenheimer, known as the father of the atomic bomb, once praised Lee as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists of the time, whose work showed “remarkable freshness, versatility and style.”
Lee was born in Shanghai on Nov. 24, 1926, the third of six children to a merchant father, Tsing-Kong Lee, and a mother, Ming-Chang Chang, who was a devout Catholic, according to local newspaper Wenhui Daily.
He went to high school in Shanghai and attended National Chekiang University in Guizhou province and National Southwest Associated University in Kunming in Yunnan province.
After his sophomore year, he received a scholarship from the Chinese government to attend graduate school in the United States.
Between 1946 and 1950, he studied at the University of Chicago under Enrico Fermi, a Nobel laureate in physics.
In the early 1950s, Lee worked at the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, at the University of California at Berkeley and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.
His research in elementary particles, statistical mechanics, astrophysics and field theory, among others, was standing out.
In 1953, he joined Columbia University as an assistant professor. Three years later, at age 29, he became the youngest-ever full professor there. He developed a model for studying various quantum phenomena known as the “Lee model.”
In 1957, Lee was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics together with Chen-Ning Yang for work exploring the symmetry of subatomic particles as they interact with the force that holds atoms together. At 31, Lee was the second-youngest scientist to receive the distinction.
He won many other accolades including the Albert Einstein Award in Science, the Galileo Galilei Medal and the G. Bude Medal, as well as honorary doctorates and titles from organizations around the world.
As China became more open to international exchanges in the 1970s, Lee returned to his home country on repeated visits to give lectures and encourage the development of sciences, according to state media.
On Monday, the topic of his death was trending on social media platform Weibo. Some users remarked on Lee’s American citizenship, while others honored his Chinese roots. China does not recognize dual citizenship.
One Weibo user praised Lee for helping to advance Chinese education and providing a role model for younger generations.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS