Tsung-Dao Lee

Tsung-Dao Lee is a -born physicist, well known for his work on , Lee Model, particle physics, relativistic heavy ion physics, nontopological solitons and soliton stars. In 1957, Lee, at age 31, with received the Nobel Prize in Physics for work on the violation of law in weak interaction, which Chien-Shiung Wu experimentally verified. Lee is the second youngest Nobel laureate, and Lee and Yang were the first Chinese Laureates.

Biography

Lee's ancestral hometown is Suzhou, Jiangsu. He was born in Shanghai, China, and received his education in Shanghai and Jiangxi. The first part of his university education began at Zhejiang University, but was interrupted by the war, so he continued at the National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming the next year . Lee went to the University of Chicago in 1946 and completed his PhD with Enrico Fermi. He then worked with collaborators on phase transitions in statistical mechanics and polarons in condensed matter physics. In 1953, he became an assistant professor at Columbia University, and worked mainly in particle physics and field theory. Three years later, at age 29, Lee became the university's youngest full professor. Over the years, Lee has pioneered and developed research ranging from symmetry violations in weak interactions to fields of high energy neutrino physics and RHIC physics. He remains an active member of the Columbia faculty and has held its highest academic rank, University Professor, since 1984. Currently, his interests have turned to the bosonic nature of high Tc superconductivity, the neutrino mapping matrix and new ways to solve Schr?dinger equation.

Educational activities

Soon after the re-establishment of China-American , Lee and his wife, Hui-Chun Jeannette Chin , were able to go to China, where Lee gave a series of lectures and seminars, and organized the CUSPEA .

In 1998, Lee established the Chun-Tsung Endowment in memory of his wife, Hui-Chun Chin, who died 3 years earlier. The Chun-Tsung scholarships, supervised by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia , are awarded to undergraduates, usually in their 2nd or 3rd year, at five universities, which are Fudan University, Lanzhou university, Suzhou University, Beijing University and Taiwan Tsing Hua University. Students selected for such scholarships are named "Chun-Tsung Scholars" .

Personal life

Chin and Lee were married in 1950 and have two sons: and . Lee reads whodunit novels when he does not work on physics. His English given name differs dramatically from the then-existing Chinese Romanizations, such as Wade-Giles and Gwoyeu Romatzyh. Tsung-Dao Lee is also known as T.-D. Lee.

Honours and awards

Awards:
Nobel Prize in Physics
Albert Einstein Award
G. Bude Medal, Collège de France
Galileo Galilei Medal
Order of Merit, Grande Ufficiale, Italy
Science for Peace Prize
China National-International Cooperation Award
Naming of Small Planet 3443 as the T.D. Lee Planet
New York City Science Award
Pope Joannes Paulus Medal
Ministero dell'Interno Medal of the Government of Italy
New York Academy of Science Award
The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, Japan

Memberships:

American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Philosophical Society
Academia Sinica
Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Third World Academy of Sciences
Pontifical Academy of Sciences

Bibliography

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