Tai Tsun Wu (, September 1, 1933) is a Chinese-born American physicist and applied physicist well known for his contributions to
high-energy nuclear physics
High-energy nuclear physics studies the behavior of nuclear matter in energy regimes typical of high-energy physics. The primary focus of this field is the study of heavy-ion collisions, as compared to lighter atoms in other particle accelerator ...
and
statistical mechanics.
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 flowin ...
, he studied
electrical engineering at
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
and became a
William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition
The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often abbreviated to Putnam Competition, is an annual mathematics competition for undergraduate college students enrolled at institutions of higher learning in the United States and Canada (regar ...
fellow (1953).
He obtained an
S.M. (1954) and
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
(1956) in
applied physics
Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered to be a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering.
"Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination ...
from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
.
His thesis concerned '' I. The Concept of Impedance II. High Frequency Scattering'' and was advised by
Ronold W. P. King.
At Harvard, he continued as Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows (1956–59), joined the faculty of applied physics (1959) and is currently the Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics & Professor of Physics.
Wu has also had visiting appointments with
Rockefeller University (1966), at the
DESY in
Hamburg, Germany (1971), at
CERN in
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...
and
Utrecht University
Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...
(1977).
He has studied
statistical mechanics on
Bose–Einstein condensation Bose–Einstein may refer to:
* Bose–Einstein condensate
** Bose–Einstein condensation (network theory)
* Bose–Einstein correlations
* Bose–Einstein statistics
In quantum statistics, Bose–Einstein statistics (B–E statistics) describe ...
in an external potential, classical
electromagnetic theory
In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of a ...
(1960).
With
Hung Cheng
Hung Cheng (; born March 2, 1937), also known as Hong Zheng, is an American professor of applied mathematics at MIT.
Education
Cheng received his B.Sc and the Ph.D. degrees from the California Institute of Technology, in 1959 and 1961. He had ...
, he used gauge
quantum field theory to predict the unboundedly increasing total scattering cross sections at very high energies, experimentally verified at
CERN and
Tevatron collider.
Wu studied production processes for the
Large Hadron Collider, in particular to predict the production cross section of a
Higgs particle with low momentum together with two forward jets.
His studies with
Chen Ning Yang include
CP violation
In particle physics, CP violation is a violation of CP-symmetry (or charge conjugation parity symmetry): the combination of C-symmetry (charge symmetry) and P-symmetry ( parity symmetry). CP-symmetry states that the laws of physics should be th ...
and globalization of the gauge theory. More recently, Wu has studied
quantum information processing
Quantum information science is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand the analysis, processing, and transmission of information using quantum mechanics principles. It combines the study of Information science with quantum effects in p ...
based on 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 th ...
without any spatial dimension in the modeling and application of quantum memories.
Honours & Awards
* Fellow of the
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, a ...
, 1977
* Academician of
Academia Sinica, Taiwan, 1980
*
The Humboldt Prize
The Humboldt Prize, the Humboldt-Forschungspreis in German, also known as the Humboldt Research Award, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of G ...
, 1985
*
Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics
Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics is an award given each year since 1959 jointly by the American Physical Society and American Institute of Physics. It is established by the Heineman Foundation in honour of Dannie Heineman. As of 20 ...
with
Barry M. McCoy and
Alexander Zamolodchikov
Alexander Borisovich Zamolodchikov (russian: Алекса́ндр Бори́сович Замоло́дчиков; born September 18, 1952) is a Russian physicist, known for his contributions to condensed matter physics, two-dimensional conform ...
, 1999
Books
*''The Scattering and Diffraction of Waves'' (Harvard University Press, 1959). With
Ronold W. P. King.
*''The two-dimensional
Ising model
The Ising model () (or Lenz-Ising model or Ising-Lenz model), named after the physicists Ernst Ising and Wilhelm Lenz, is a mathematical model of ferromagnetism in statistical mechanics. The model consists of discrete variables that represent ...
'' (Harvard University Press, 1973). With
Barry M. McCoy
*''Expanding Protons: Scattering at High Energies'' (MIT Press, 1987). With
Hung Cheng
Hung Cheng (; born March 2, 1937), also known as Hong Zheng, is an American professor of applied mathematics at MIT.
Education
Cheng received his B.Sc and the Ph.D. degrees from the California Institute of Technology, in 1959 and 1961. He had ...
*''The Ubiquitous
Photon
A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless, so they a ...
:
Helicity Methods for
QED and
QCD
In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of the strong interaction between quarks mediated by gluons. Quarks are fundamental particles that make up composite hadrons such as the proton, neutron and pion. QCD is a ty ...
'' (Oxford University Press, 1990). With
Raymond Gastmans
*''Lateral Electromagnetic Waves: Theory and Applications to Communications, Geophysical Exploration, and Remote Sensing'' (Springer-Verlag, 1992). With
Ronold W. P. King and
Margaret Owens
Margaret Owens (March 28, 1922 – October 9, 1955) was an American professional rodeo cowgirl. She was a two-time World Champion barrel racer. In December 1948 and 1951, she won the world championship. She was the first world champion for the Gi ...
See also
*
Wu-Yang monopole
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Tai Tsun
1933 births
Living people
American nuclear physicists
People associated with CERN
Chinese nuclear physicists
University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering alumni
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni
Harvard University faculty
Chinese emigrants to the United States
Writers from Shanghai
Educators from Shanghai
Chinese science writers
Physicists from Shanghai
Humboldt Research Award recipients
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Putnam Fellows