Tsung-Dao Lee (; born November 24, 1926) is a Chinese-American
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
, known for his work on
parity violation
In physics, a parity transformation (also called parity inversion) is the flip in the sign of ''one'' spatial coordinate. In three dimensions, it can also refer to the simultaneous flip in the sign of all three spatial coordinates (a point refle ...
, the
Lee–Yang theorem,
particle physics
Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...
, relativistic heavy ion (RHIC) physics, nontopological solitons, and
soliton star
In quantum field theory, a non-topological soliton (NTS) is a soliton field configuration possessing, contrary to a topological one, a conserved Noether charge and stable against transformation into usual particles of this field for the following ...
s. He was a
University Professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
Emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, where he taught from 1953 until his retirement in 2012.
In 1957, Lee, at the age of 30, won the
Nobel Prize in Physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
with
Chen Ning Yang
Yang Chen-Ning or Chen-Ning Yang (; born 1 October 1922), also known as C. N. Yang or by the English name Frank Yang, is a Chinese theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to statistical mechanics, integrable systems, gauge the ...
for their work on the violation of the
parity
Parity may refer to:
* Parity (computing)
** Parity bit in computing, sets the parity of data for the purpose of error detection
** Parity flag in computing, indicates if the number of set bits is odd or even in the binary representation of the r ...
law in weak interactions, which
Chien-Shiung Wu
)
, spouse =
, residence =
, nationality = ChineseAmerican
, field = Physics
, work_institutions = Institute of Physics, Academia SinicaUniversity of California at BerkeleySmith CollegePrinceton UniversityColumbia UniversityZhejiang Unive ...
experimentally proved from 1956 to 1957, with her legendary
Wu experiment.
Lee remains the youngest Nobel laureate in the science fields after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. He is the third-youngest
Nobel laureate
The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...
in sciences in history after
William L. Bragg
Sir William Lawrence Bragg, (31 March 1890 – 1 July 1971) was an Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallography, X-ray crystallographer, discoverer (1912) of Bragg's law, Bragg's law of X-ray diffraction, which is basic for t ...
(who won the prize at 25 with his father
William H. Bragg in 1915) and
Werner Heisenberg
Werner Karl Heisenberg () (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a breakthrough paper. In the subsequent series ...
(who won in 1932 also at 30). Lee and Yang were the first
Chinese laureates. Since he became a
naturalized American citizen in 1962, Lee is also the youngest American ever to have won a Nobel Prize.
Biography
Family
Lee was born in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
, China, with his
ancestral home in nearby
Suzhou
Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...
. His father Chun-kang Lee (), one of the first graduates of the
University of Nanking
The University of Nanking, known in Chinese as Jinling University (金陵大学, Jinling being the ancient name of Nanking) was a private university in Nanjing, China sponsored by American churches. Founded in 1888, it effectively become defunct i ...
, was a
chemical industrialist and
merchant
A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...
who was involved in China's early development of modern synthesized
fertilizer
A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...
. Lee's grandfather Chong-tan Lee () was the first Chinese Methodist Episcopal senior pastor of St. John's Church in Suzhou (
蘇州聖約翰堂).
Lee has four brothers and one sister. Educator
Robert C.T. Lee Robert C. T. Lee () (October 2, 1923 – May 15, 2016), was a Taiwanese veterinarian and politician.
Biography
Lee was born in Shanghai, Republic of China, with his ancestral hometown in Suzhou, Jiangsu. His brother is the physicist and Nobel Priz ...
is one of T. D.'s brothers. Lee's mother Chang and brother Robert C. T. moved to
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
in the 1950s.
Early life
Lee received his secondary education in Shanghai (High School Affiliated to Soochow University, 東吳大學附屬中學) and
Jiangxi
Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...
(Jiangxi Joint High School, 江西聯合中學). Due to the
Second Sino-Japanese war
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
, Lee's high school education was interrupted, thus he did not obtain his secondary diploma. Nevertheless, in 1943, Lee directly applied to and was admitted by the National Che Kiang University (now
Zhejiang University
Zhejiang University, abbreviated as ZJU or Zheda and formerly romanized as Chekiang University, is a national public research university based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. It is a member of the prestigious C9 League and is selected into the na ...
). Initially, Lee registered as a student in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Very quickly, Lee's talent was discovered and his interest in physics grew rapidly. Several physics professors, including
Shu Xingbei
Shu Xingbei (; October 1, 1905 - October 30, 1983), also known as Hsin Pei Soh, was a Chinese physicist and educator.
Life
Early years
Shu was born on 1 October 1905, in Hanjiang, Jiangsu Province. In 1924, he entered Hangchow University (aka ...
and
Wang Ganchang
Wang Ganchang (; May 28, 1907 – December 10, 1998) was a Chinese nuclear physicist. He was one of the founding fathers of Chinese nuclear physics, cosmic rays and particle physics. Wang was also a leader in the fields of detonation physic ...
, largely guided Lee, and he soon transferred into the Department of Physics of
National Che Kiang University
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
, where he studied in 1943–1944.
However, again disrupted by a further Japanese invasion, Lee continued at the
National Southwestern Associated University
When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out between China and Japan in 1937, Peking University, Tsinghua University and Nankai University merged to form Changsha Temporary University in Changsha and later National Southwestern Associated Universi ...
in
Kunming
Kunming (; ), also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China. It is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province as well as the seat of the provincial government. The headquar ...
the next year in 1945, where he studied with Professor
Wu Ta-You
Wu Ta-You () (27 September 1907 – 4 March 2000) was a Chinese physicist and writer who worked in the United States, Canada, mainland China and Taiwan. He has been called the Father of Chinese Physics.
Early life and education
Wu was born i ...
.
Life and research in US
Professor Wu nominated Lee for a Chinese government fellowship for graduate study in the US. In 1946, Lee went to the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
and was selected by Professor
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and ...
to become his PhD student. Lee received his Ph.D. under Fermi in 1950 for his research work ''Hydrogen Content of White Dwarf Stars''. Lee served as research associate and lecturer in physics at the
University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...
from 1950 to 1951.
In 1953, Lee joined
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, where he remained until retirement. His first work at Columbia was on a solvable model of quantum field theory better known as the Lee model. Soon, his focus turned to particle physics and the developing puzzle of
K meson
KAON (Karlsruhe ontology) is an ontology infrastructure developed by the University of Karlsruhe and the Research Center for Information Technologies in Karlsruhe.
Its first incarnation was developed in 2002 and supported an enhanced version of ...
decays. Lee realized in early 1956 that the key to the puzzle was parity non-conservation. At Lee's suggestion, the first experimental test was on hyperion decay by the Steinberger group. At that time, the experimental result gave only an indication of a 2 standard deviation effect of possible
parity violation
In physics, a parity transformation (also called parity inversion) is the flip in the sign of ''one'' spatial coordinate. In three dimensions, it can also refer to the simultaneous flip in the sign of all three spatial coordinates (a point refle ...
. Encouraged by this feasibility study, Lee made a systematic study of possible Time reversal (T), Parity (P), Charge Conjugation (C), and
CP violations in
weak interactions
In nuclear physics and particle physics, the weak interaction, which is also often called the weak force or weak nuclear force, is one of the four known fundamental interactions, with the others being electromagnetism, the strong interaction, ...
with collaborators, including C. N. Yang. After the definitive experimental confirmation by
Chien-Shiung Wu
)
, spouse =
, residence =
, nationality = ChineseAmerican
, field = Physics
, work_institutions = Institute of Physics, Academia SinicaUniversity of California at BerkeleySmith CollegePrinceton UniversityColumbia UniversityZhejiang Unive ...
and her assistants that showed that parity was not conserved, Lee and Yang were awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics. Unfortunately Wu was not awarded the Nobel prize, which is considered one of the largest controversies in Nobel committee history.
In the early 1960s, Lee and collaborators initiated the important field of high energy neutrino physics. In 1964, Lee, with M. Nauenberg, analyzed the divergences connected with particles of zero rest mass, and described a general method known as the
KLN theorem for dealing with these divergences, which still plays an important role in contemporary work in QCD, with its massless, self-interacting gluons. In 1974–75, Lee published several papers on "A New Form of Matter in High Density", which led to the modern field of RHIC physics, now dominating the entire high energy nuclear physics field.
Besides particle physics, Lee has been active in statistical mechanics, astrophysics, hydrodynamics, many body system, solid state, lattice QCD. In 1983, Lee wrote a paper entitled, "Can Time Be a Discrete Dynamical Variable?"; which led to a series of publications by Lee and collaborators on the formulation of fundamental physics in terms of difference equations, but with exact invariance under continuous groups of translational and rotational transformations. Beginning in 1975, Lee and collaborators established the field of non-topological solitons, which led to his work on soliton stars and black holes throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
From 1997 to 2003, Lee was director of the RIKEN-BNL Research Center (now director emeritus), which together with other researchers from Columbia, completed a 1 teraflops supercomputer QCDSP for lattice QCD in 1998 and a 10 teraflops
QCDOC The QCDOC ( quantum chromodynamics on a chip) is a supercomputer technology focusing on using relatively cheap low power processing elements to produce a massively parallel machine. The machine is custom-made to solve small but extremely demandin ...
machine in 2001. Most recently, Lee and
Richard M. Friedberg
Richard M. Friedberg (born October 8, 1935), is a theoretical physicist who has contributed to a wide variety of problems in mathematics and physics. These include mathematical logic, number theory, solid state physics, general relativity, partic ...
have developed a new method to solve the
Schrödinger equation
The Schrödinger equation is a linear partial differential equation that governs the wave function of a quantum-mechanical system. It is a key result in quantum mechanics, and its discovery was a significant landmark in the development of the ...
, leading to convergent iterative solutions for the long-standing quantum degenerate double-wall potential and other instanton problems. They have also done work on the neutrino mapping matrix.
Lee is one of the 20 American recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics to sign a letter addressed to President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
in May 2008, urging him to "reverse the damage done to basic science research in the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill" by requesting additional emergency funding for the
Department of Energy's
Office of Science, the
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
, and the
National Institute of Standards and Technology
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...
.
Educational activities
Soon after the re-establishment of China-American
relations with the PRC, Lee and his wife, Jeannette Hui-Chun Chin (), were able to go to China, where Lee gave a series of lectures and seminars, and organized the
CUSPEA CUSPEA (China-U.S. Physics Examination and Application,李政道奖学金) was an examination and admission system used by the physics departments of some American and Canadian universities for graduate school admission from People's Republic of Chi ...
(China-U.S. Physics Examination and Application).
In 1998, Lee established the Chun-Tsung Endowment (秦惠䇹—李政道中国大学生见习基金) in memory of his wife, who had died 3 years earlier. The Chun-Tsung scholarships, supervised by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (New York), are awarded to undergraduates, usually in their 2nd or 3rd year, at six universities, which are
Shanghai Jiaotong University,
Fudan University,
Lanzhou University,
Soochow University,
Peking University
Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education.
Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...
and
National Tsing Hua University. Students selected for such scholarships are named "Chun-Tsung Scholars" (䇹政学者).
Personal life
Chin and Lee were married in 1950 and have two sons: James and
Stephen.
Honours and awards
; Awards
*
Nobel Prize in Physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
(1957)
* G. Bude Medal, Collège de France (1969, 1977)
* Galileo Galilei Medal (1979)
*
Order of Merit, Grande Ufficiale, Italy (1986)
*
Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture and Medal (1993)
* Science for Peace Prize (1994)
* China National-International Cooperation Award (1995)
*
Matteucci Medal (1995)
* Naming of Small Planet 3443 as the
3443 Leetsungdao (1997)
* New York City Science Award (1997)
* Pope Joannes Paulus Medal (1999)
* Ministero dell'Interno Medal of the Government of Italy (1999)
* New York Academy of Science Award (2000)
*
The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
, Japan (2007)
; Memberships
*
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
*
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
*
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
*
Academia Sinica
Academia Sinica (AS, la, 1=Academia Sinica, 3=Chinese Academy; ), headquartered in Nangang, Taipei, is the national academy of Taiwan. Founded in Nanking, the academy supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ...
*
Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei
The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...
*
Chinese Academy of Sciences
*
Third World Academy of Sciences
The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable devel ...
*
Pontifical Academy of Sciences
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences ( it, Pontificia accademia delle scienze, la, Pontificia Academia Scientiarum) is a scientific academy of the Vatican City, established in 1936 by Pope Pius XI. Its aim is to promote the progress of the math ...
Selected publications
; Technical Reports
*
Conservation Laws in Weak Interactions"
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
,
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...
(through predecessor agency the
Atomic Energy Commission, March 1957).
*
Weak Interactions"
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
,
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...
(through predecessor agency the
Atomic Energy Commission, June 1957).
* (with C.N. Yang)
Elementary Particles and Weak Interactions"
Brookhaven National Laboratory,
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...
(through predecessor agency the
Atomic Energy Commission, October 1957).
*
History of Weak Interactions"
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
,
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...
(through predecessor agency the
Atomic Energy Commission), July 1970).
*
High Energy Electromagnetic and Weak Interaction Processes"
Brookhaven National Laboratory,
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...
(through predecessor agency the
Atomic Energy Commission, January 11, 1972).
; Books
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
See also
*
*
*
Chinese people in New York City
The New York metropolitan area is home to the largest and most prominent ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, hosting Chinese populations representing all 34 provincial-level administrative units of China. The Chinese American population ...
References
External links
T.D. Lee's English homepage
T.D. Lee Digital Resource Center* including his Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1957 ''Weak Interactions and Nonconservation of Parity''
*
Brookhaven National LaboratoryTsung-Dao Lee Appointed as Member of the Pontifical Academy of SciencesCelebration of T.D. Lee's 80th Birthday and the 50th Anniversary of the Discovery of Parity Non-conservation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Tsung-Dao
1926 births
Living people
American Nobel laureates
21st-century American physicists
Brookhaven National Laboratory Nobel laureates
Chinese emigrants to the United States
Columbia University faculty
Institute for Advanced Study faculty
Members of Academia Sinica
Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Nankai University alumni
Nobel laureates in Physics
Nobel laureates of the Republic of China
Particle physicists
Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class
Scientists from Shanghai
Scientists from Suzhou
Shanghai Nobel laureates
Theoretical physicists
University of Chicago alumni
Zhejiang University alumni
Zhejiang University faculty
National Southwestern Associated University alumni
People with acquired American citizenship
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Recipients of the Matteucci Medal