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Lee Tsung-DaoChinese and American physicist
Date of Birth: 24.11.1926
Country:  China |
Content:
- Life and Early Career
- Early Achievements
- Collaboration with Yang and Nobel Prize
- Later Career and Legacy
- Personal Life and Legacy
Life and Early Career
Tsung-Dao Lee was born in Shanghai, China, and completed his high school education there. He went on to study at Zhejiang University, but his studies were interrupted by war. He resumed his studies after the war at the National Southwestern Associated University. In 1946, Lee moved to the United States and earned his doctorate in physics at the University of Chicago under the supervision of Enrico Fermi.
Early Achievements
In 1953, Lee became an assistant professor at Columbia University. Three years later, at the young age of 29, he became Columbia University's youngest full professor. He remained an active member of the faculty until 2012, serving as University Professor since 1984.
Collaboration with Yang and Nobel Prize
Lee's most famous scientific achievement came in collaboration with physicist Chen-Ning Yang. Together, they proposed the idea of parity violation, which resulted in the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957. This discovery revolutionized the field of particle physics.
Later Career and Legacy
After the resumption of US-China relations, Lee and his wife were able to return to China, where he gave lectures, organized seminars, and founded the China-US Commission on Physics Education and Applications (CUSPEA). In 1998, Lee established the Tsung-Dao Lee and Chieh-Hsuen Chin Scholarship Fund, or the "Qiu-Zhen Fund," in Beijing in memory of his wife, who had passed away three years earlier.
Personal Life and Legacy
Lee was married to Chieh-Hsuen Chin from 1950 until her death in 1995. They had two sons, James and Stephen. In his spare time, Lee enjoyed reading detective novels. He passed away in San Francisco on August 4, 2024 at the age of 97. Tsung-Dao Lee's legacy as a pioneering physicist and his contributions to science continue to inspire and impact the field.
