2007-9-25

Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957, which was in recognition of their Lee-Yang Hypothesis raised in 1956 that the parity during the weak interaction of elementary particles may not be in conservation. The theory was latterly validated by another female scientist, Jianxiong Wu (1912-1997) who was also of Chinese origin by her experiment. This conclusion pushed over the former P conservation law which was respected as a golden rule by the whole physical circle, and opened another door accessing to a brand-new micro world.
On May 30th,1997, Tsung-Dao Lee made a speech in Beijing. He said, 'In physics, the conservation of parity means left and right are in symmetry.'
'Suppose that there are two systems which are mirror images of each other, that is to say, the dynamics of them are identical except the sides they are at. Parity conservation refers to that despite the left or right side that the system is locates, it should be developed in a same way as its counterparty. '
'In 1956, Chen Ning Yang and I proposed our theory of non-conservation of parity, which was validated by Jianxiong Wu in her experiment that the points held by P. Conservation law was truly in accordance with the natural phenomenon.'
Tsung-Dao Lee was born in Shanghai on November 25th,1926. He loved reading since his childhood. He could no be departed from his books, even at the time when he went to washroom. During the war against Japanese invasion, he was forced to go southwest China for studying. On the way there, He lost almost all of his clothes, but his books were increased in quantity.
In 1946 when he was 20 years old, Tsung-Dao Lee went to USA for further study. With only two years' experience in college, he passed the strict entrance examination, and finally was enrolled by the graduate school of Chicago University. Three years later, his paper for doctor's degree passed the debate and was appraised to be with particular viewpoint and great achievement. He was praised to be Doctor Prodigy from that time when he was only 23 years old.
The premature Tsung-Dao Lee was promoted to be professor of Columbia University in1956 when he was 30 years old. He realized that talents in scientific research should be taught and trained when they were young. Therefore, when he met Chairman Mao Zedong on May 30th, 1974, he proposed to open a juvenile class in University of Science and Technology of China, which was accepted by Chinese government. In 1979 when he visited Hefei, he left the words to the students of the juvenile class, 'If the students surpass the teacher, there is no lack of successors for our scientific development.'
Tsung-Dao Lee paid great attention to Chinese scientific development. He suggested the Chinese government to establish the fund of National Natural Science; establish postdoctoral system; manufacture electron positron collider; and build up China High-tech Center and Beijing Modern Physics Center, etc. which were accepted later. On July 16th, 1985, Xiao Ping Deng met Tsung-Dao Lee and said to him, ¡®Thank you for consideration of so many issues, and also for your good suggestions.'