The reason why I call Wang Chengshu the "Wu Jianxiong" of the United States is because Wang Chengshu was the only female scientist who participated in the development of China's nuclear weapons, and Wu Jianxiong was the only female scientist who participated in the "Manhattan Project" in the United States. The reason why Wang Chengshu is called China's "Deng Jiaxian" is because Wang Chengshu, like Deng Jiaxian, has also kept anonymity for the development of nuclear weapons. However, the public seems to only know Deng Jiaxian, but does not know Wang Chengshu. What kind of person is Wang Chengshu?
王承书
Wang Chengshu (1912—1994) was born in Wuchang, Hubei, and was born in Shanghai on June 26, 1912. His father was a scholar of late Qing Dynasty and was sent by the Qing government to study in Japan. During the Beiyang period, he served as the Chief of Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After his mother was a famous family in Yangzhou, Wang Chengshu's great-grandfather, He Zhihua, was the owner of the first garden in the late Qing Dynasty, "Jixiao Mountain Villa" (also known as He Garden).
Wang Chengshu has four sisters. Their parents named their daughters after the first characters of the four ancient books of "The Book of Songs", "Book of Books", "Book of Rites" and "Book of Changes", so their names are also quite scrolls. Qi, Wang Chengshu ranked second among sisters.
Wang Chengshu settled in Beijing with her father. Although she was frail and sick from a young age, she showed great talent for mathematics. She had studied at Beijing Peiyuan Girls’ Primary School and Beiman Girls’ High School. Beiman Girls’ High School is a school In the church school, many outstanding women attended this prestigious Beijing church school, such as Li Dequan, Bing Xin, Xie Xide, Sun Weishi and others.
王承书
In 1930, Wang Chengshu was admitted to the Department of Physics of Yanjing University, and she was the only girl in her class. She had excellent academic performance during her studies and won the "Fitofi" golden key. He received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Yenching University in 1934 and 1936. Whether Wang Chengshu was the first female master of physics in a Chinese university has yet to be confirmed by historical data, but in the 1930s in China University graduate students are rare. Chen Xingshen, one year older than Wang Chengshu, was the first mathematics graduate student trained by Tsinghua University, and only two years earlier than Wang Chengshu.
Photo of Wang Chengshu with his sisters
Wang Chengshu stayed on as a teacher at Yanjing University after graduating from his master, and served as an assistant in the Department of Physics. The famous female physicist Wang Mingzhen also studied at Yanjing University Physics Department and served as teaching assistant, the "two kings" must have had an intersection in Yanyuan, and Wang Chengshu and senior Zhang Wenyu also had a relationship.
After the "July 7 Incident" broke out, although Yenching University was relatively safe at this time, Wang Chengshu chose to leave the occupied Peking, and Zhang Wenyu had already gone to study in the UK as early as 1934. In Nanjing, Wuchang, Guilin, Guiyang and other places, he finally reunited with Zhang Wenyu in Kunming Southwest Associated University in 1939 and became married.
Wedding photo of Wang Chengshu and Zhang Wenyu
In August 1941, Wang Chengshu went to the University of Michigan to study for a doctorate degree. At that time, the American Balbo Scholarship Foundation accepted Wang Chengshu’s application as an exception. The foundation originally did not accept applications from married women. This exception is sufficient to prove Wang Chengshu’s excellence, and all this is due to Chang Wenyu, because Chang Wenyu had previously studied under the Master of Nuclear Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Professor Rutherford, influenced by Zhang Wenyu's academic research, Wang Chengshu also naturally came into contact with the most cutting-edge topics in the world of physics.
Wang Chengshu's doctoral supervisor is Professor Uhlenbeck. Uhhlenbeck is a world-recognized authority on theoretical physics. He is also one of the discoverers of electron spin. Wang Chengshu and Professor Uhlenbeck have published many articles in cooperation Papers on rare gas dynamics, and once named the equation formula after them: Wang Chengshu-Uhlenbeck equation.
Wang Chengshu took a photo in the United States
In the summer of 1944, Wang Chengshu received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan and then stayed on for postdoctoral research. In 1946, he served as an associate researcher and a researcher. With Chang Wenyu in PrestonThe University Henry Laboratory is engaged in nuclear physics research.
In the fall of 1949, when the news of the founding of the People’s Republic of China reached the United States, Wang Chengshu and Chang Wenyu had the idea of returning to China, but they were only delayed because Wang Chengshu was pregnant. Although many people persuaded them to join the United States, But none of them politely declined.
From left: Deng Jiaxian, Wang Chengshu, Yang Zhenning, Zhang Wenyu
In November 1956, Wang Chengshu and Zhang Wenyu packed some valuable scientific research materials into a box and privately The couple returned to the motherland with their 6-year-old son with a car, television, refrigerator and other family properties. Both of them are scientists with a certain social status, rather than foreign students who have just stepped out of school. Particularly, the FBI also created various obstacles to prevent them from leaving the United States.
Wang Chengshu was arranged by the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a researcher in the theoretical research room of the Institute of Modern Physics, and concurrently a professor at the Department of Physics of Peking University. When the Institute of Modern Physics was renamed the Institute of Atomic Energy in 1958, Director Qian Sanqiang was preparing to build a thermonuclear When I was in the fusion research room, I talked with Wang Chengshu and solicited his opinions. Wang Chengshu was transferred to the thermonuclear fusion research room as the deputy director.
王承书
Wang Chengshu went to the Moscow Institute of Atomic Research in the Soviet Union to learn from the experience, and translated the latest "Snow Rende Project" published in the United States on thermonuclear fusion, which was translated shortly thereafter. The "Introduction to Thermonuclear Fusion" has filled the gaps in the field of thermonuclear fusion in China. These two books have also become basic textbooks for training talents in thermonuclear fusion.
In March 1961, Wang Chengshu once again obeyed the organizational arrangement and transferred to the Uranium Isotope Separation Laboratory as a researcher and deputy director. Together with Wu Zhengkai, Qian Gaoyun and others, he started an incognito and long uranium isotope study. Separation research is not only a change in work, but also a change in his field of expertise, but Wang Chengshu devoted himself to the field of China’s nuclear industry without complaint and joined the Communist Party of China this year.
Group photo of Wang Chengshu and Zhang Wenyu
Since the beginning of 1965, Wang Chengshu has served as researcher and deputy director of 605 institutes, researcher of the Third Research Institute of the Second Ministry of Machinery, and deputy director of the Revolutionary Committee, and large The chief designer of the gas diffusion machine has solved important scientific research results such as purification cascade calculation, cascade steady state and dynamic calculation, and made important contributions to the batch start-up of China's first uranium enriched gas diffusion plant.
Because the scientific research work undertaken by Wang Chengshu is highly confidential, she has disappeared from the field of vision of colleagues in the academic circles for 30 years. Like Deng Jiaxian and other scientists, she is incognito and not known to outsiders, and she belongs to this group. The only woman, this is very remarkable, it is not an exaggeration to say that she is an uncrowned "two bombs and one star" meritorious scientist.
Wang Chengshu and his son’s family photo
Since the National Science Conference in the early spring of 1978, Wang Chengshu has served as a researcher of the Ministry of Nuclear Industry, Chief Engineer of the Bureau of Science and Technology, and a member of the Standing Committee of the Science and Technology Committee of the Ministry of Nuclear Industry. He is also a senior consultant and leader of two expert teams for centrifugation and laser separation of uranium isotope in the "Seventh Five-Year" national key scientific and technological project.
In 1980, when the Chinese Academy of Sciences resumed the system of evaluating members of the Faculty, Wang Chengshu, a highly respected member of the Faculty, was elected as a member of the Faculty. This is the highest honor given to a scientist by the country. When the Academia Sinica evaluated the first academician in 1948, no female scientist was selected. In 1955, when the Chinese Academy of Sciences first evaluated members of the Faculty, only Lin Qiaozhi, an obstetrics and gynecology expert was elected. In 1980, when the second evaluation of Faculty members was conducted, it seemed that only two female scientists were elected members of the Faculty. Of course, Lu Shijia also did. Qualified to be elected, but thanked her politely.
王承书
In the early 1940s, when Wang Chengshu was studying for a doctorate degree under his tutor, Professor Uhlenbeck, many research results were of considerable academic value, but hers Those papers were not published in time and were not known by the academic circles. In the 1970s, Uhlenbeck put thesePublic publication has once again caused a sensation in the world academic circle, and is often cited by scientists. Therefore, Wang Chengshu's academic ability is not beyond the reach of ordinary female scientists.
From left: Wang Chengshu, Zhang Wenyu, Yang Zhenning, Deng Jiaxian, Zhou Guangzhao
On June 18, 1994, a generation of female nuclear physicist Wang Chengshu passed away in Beijing at the age of 82. Her husband, Zhang Wenyu, left two years earlier than her, and he was also 82 years old. This seems to be a coincidence. Among Chinese scientists, both husband and wife are engaged in nuclear physics research. It seems that only Wang Chengshu and Zhang Wenyu and He Zehui and Qian are involved. Three strong two couples.
