Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom

By Teresa Robeson and Rebecca Huang

Meet Wu Chien Shiung, famous physicist who overcame prejudice to prove that she could be anything she wanted.

“Wu Chien Shiung's story is remarkable—and so is the way this book does it justice.” —Booklist (Starred review)

When Wu Chien Shiung was born in China 100 years ago, most girls did not attend school; no one considered them as smart as boys. But her parents felt differently. Giving her a name meaning “Courageous Hero,” they encouraged her love of learning and science. This engaging biography follows Wu Chien Shiung as she battles sexism and racism to become what Newsweek magazine called the “Queen of Physics” for her work on beta decay. Along the way, she earned the admiration of famous scientists like Enrico Fermi and Robert Oppenheimer and became the first woman hired as an instructor by Princeton University, the first woman elected President of the American Physical Society, the first scientist to have an asteroid named after her when she was still alive, and many other honors.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Union Square Kids
• Release date: Feb 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781454941590

Teresa Robeson

Teresa Robeson was born in Hong Kong, raised in Canada, and now writes and creates from her mini-homestead in southern Indiana where she lives with her scientist husband. A nonfiction winner of the We Need Diverse Books Mentorship Program, Teresa advocates for greater scientific and cultural literacy. 

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Reviews for Queen of Physics

[nbmars · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wu Chien Shiung was born on May 31, 1912 in a small town near Shanghai, China. (According to Chinese naming conventions, Wu was her last name and Chien Shiung her given name.) The author reports in a note at the end of the book that Chien Shiung’s parents believed girls to be equal to boys and thus they should receive an equivalent education. They gave their daughter a name meaning “Courageous Hero,” and they nurtured her love of learning and science. Chien Shiung left home at age eleven to compete for a place in a boarding school for teacher training; she was ranked ninth among around 10,000 applicants. During the day, Chien Shiung attended her own classes, and at night, she studied the textbooks of her friends. She kept up this habit of self-learning her whole life.After graduating at the top of her class in 1929, Chien Shiung, now 17, traveled to Nanjing, again by herself, to attend the National Central University. As in boarding school, Chien Shiung was recognized as a leader among students and was asked to lead political demonstrations, all while majoring in mathematics and physics. She was encouraged to pursue her PhD abroad in the U.S., and eventually settled on the University of California at Berkeley. (She originally intended to study at the University of Michigan until she heard that women were not allowed to use the front entrance of the student center - they had to use a side entrance.) She focused her work on beta decay, which, as the author explains in a glossary at the end of the book, is what happens when the center of an atom “decays” or breaks apart. Soon, the author reports, Chien Shiung had a deeper understanding of beta decay than just about anyone else, and other physicists came to her for consultation. She even helped shatter a fundamental concept of nuclear physics (“the parity laws”). It was such spectacular work that the male physicists involved won the Nobel Prize (but not Chien Shiung). In fact, over time, six male physicists won Nobel Prizes for the work she helped them complete, but Chien Shiung was passed over. The author writes:“Sometimes Chien Shiung did not get the jobs she wanted either - because she was a woman, because she was Asian. Was she sad? Yes. Was she disappointed? Often. Was she discouraged? Occasionally. But she did not let those feelings stop her from doing what she loved, because Baba [her father] always said, ‘Ignore the obstacles. Just put your head down and keep walking forward.’”She became such an exceptional physicist that the “Smithsonian” magazine called her “The First Lady of Physics Research” and “Newsweek” named her the “Queen of Physics.”The author concludes: “And that is how a small girl from a faraway village in China went to school, proved herself as smart as any boy, learned to be a scientist, and even became a queen!”The Afterword adds that Wu Chien Shiung was the first woman to be hired as an instructor by Princeton and to receive an honorary doctorate from that institution; the first woman to be elected president of the American Physical Society, and the first person to receive the Wolf Prize in Physics, inter alia. (The Wolf Prize is considered the second most prestigious award in the sciences, after the Nobel Prize.) Although it is not part of this story, Wu also made significant contributions to the “Manhattan Project” dedicated to the development of nuclear weapons during World War II. As the author of an article in "The New Inquiry" observed:"The popular historical narrative of the Manhattan Project presents it as a masculine, western enterprise, fitting the image of the young, white, male soldier on the battlegrounds of the two world wars. Yet the work of Wu, among many others, shows that the narrative was more complicated than that. Women, non-white, and non-Western people made vital contributions to the Manhattan Project and the physics underlying it. They disappeared from the history of the project as it was used to reinforce the image of the US as the leading Western superpower, both politically and scientifically. The forgotten history of Wu is one where state politics meets gender politics to the detriment of our understanding of scientific development."Wu died in 1997 in New York City.Illustrator Rebecca Huang uses mixed-media images that include chalkboards full of equations and nuclear symbols floating around the text. Evaluation: This book, for ages six and up, does a nice job of explaining any complicated concepts central to Wu's story, and emphasizing the obstacles Wu faced on account of her gender and race. Children will no doubt be amazed at the bravery of the little girl who traveled many miles away from home and from her beloved family in pursuit of an education. Wu’s story is pretty amazing, and it was gratifying to see it made available to inspire children. An included short bibliography will guide them to additional resources.