Sau Lan Wu facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sau Lan Wu
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| 吳秀蘭 | |
Sau Lan Wu, October 2012
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| Born | May 11, 1940 |
| Other names | 吴秀兰 |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Particle physics |
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| Thesis | Proton Compton scattering at high energies near the forward direction (1970) |
Sau Lan Wu (Chinese: 吳秀蘭; born May 11, 1940) is a Chinese-American particle physicist and a highly respected physics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She made very important discoveries about tiny particles. For example, she helped find the J/psi particle, which proved that a particle called the charm quark exists. She also helped discover the gluon, a particle that acts like "glue" to hold other particles together.
More recently, her team at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) used data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to help discover the Higgs boson. This discovery was a huge step forward in understanding how our Universe works.
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Early life and inspiration
Sau Lan Wu was born in Hong Kong in the early 1940s during a difficult time. In 1960, she received a full scholarship to attend Vassar College. She first dreamed of becoming an artist, but then Marie Curie inspired her to dedicate her life to physics.
During a summer at Brookhaven National Laboratory, she became fascinated by the science of particle physics. While in college, she also visited the White House and met Jacqueline Kennedy. During her travels, she sometimes faced unfair treatment because of her background, which showed her the importance of fairness and equality.
Academic journey
Sau Lan Wu earned her bachelor's degree in physics from Vassar College in 1963. She then went on to get her master's degree in 1964 and her doctorate (PhD) in physics in 1970 from Harvard University. After her studies, she conducted research at places like MIT, DESY in Germany, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was a very respected physics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison until she retired in 2026. Since 1986, Professor Wu has also been a visiting scientist at CERN, where she works with the ATLAS team on the Large Hadron Collider.
Amazing discoveries in physics
Finding the J/psi particle
In 1974, Sau Lan Wu was part of a team at MIT led by Samuel C.C. Ting. This team discovered the J/psi particle. For this important discovery, Samuel C.C. Ting shared the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The MIT team used a powerful machine called an accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory. They smashed tiny proton beams into a target, which created showers of new particles. They found a clear sign of a new, stable particle at a specific energy, which they called the J/psi particle. This discovery helped prove that a particle called the charm quark exists.
Discovering the gluon
Sau Lan Wu also played a key role in discovering the gluon. Think of gluons as tiny "glue" particles that hold other particles, called quarks, together. Quarks are the building blocks of protons and neutrons. For her work, Sau and her colleagues received the 1995 European Physical Society High Energy and Particle Physics Prize.
The biggest clue for the gluon was seeing "three-jet events." Imagine two tiny particles smashing together and creating three streams, or "jets," of new particles. One of these jets came from a gluon. In the late 1970s, Professor Wu joined the TASSO Collaboration at the PETRA accelerator in Germany. In 1979, she published important work on how to find these three-jet events, which helped prove the gluon existed.
The hunt for the Higgs boson
Sau Lan Wu's team from Wisconsin was the first American group to join the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN in 1993. However, her search for the Higgs boson had started even earlier at another machine at CERN called the Large Electron–Positron (LEP) Collider. With other scientists at LEP, they saw some signs of the Higgs boson, but not enough to be absolutely sure. They could only say that if it existed, it had to be heavier than a certain amount. CERN later closed the LEP collider to build the even more powerful Large Hadron Collider.
On July 4, 2012, after huge efforts by the ATLAS and CMS teams, CERN announced a major discovery. They found a new particle that matched what scientists expected the Higgs boson to be, with a mass of 125 GeV. This was a very strong discovery, meaning there was less than a 1 in 3.5 million chance it was just a random event. This discovery helped complete the "Standard Model" of particle physics, which is like a rulebook explaining how most tiny particles and forces in our visible Universe work. Sau Lan Wu and her team played a big part in this discovery. They focused on how the Higgs boson would break down into other particles, like two gamma-rays or four leptons.
Mentoring future scientists
Sau Lan Wu has guided 65 PhD students during their studies. Many of these students have gone on to become successful academics and scientists themselves.
Honors and recognition
- Outstanding Junior Investigator Award of U.S. Department of Energy, 1980
- Romnes Faculty Award, University of Wisconsin, Madison 1981
- Hilldale Professorship, University of Wisconsin, Madison 1991
- Fellow, American Physical Society 1992
- High Energy and Particle Physics Prize of the European Physical Society 1995, with Paul Söding, Björn Wiik, and Günter Wolf, for the discovery of the gluon.
- Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1996
- Vilas Professorship, University of Wisconsin, Madison 1998
- Sau Lan Wu has been featured in several books as an inspiring scientist for young students. These books include: A New York Times Best Seller "Women in Science – 50 fearless pioneers who changed the world", "This Little Scientist : A Discovery Primer", "Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Immigrant Women Who Changed the World", "How to Be Extraordinary", "Scientists Alphabet Book by Christi Sperber", "Bold Women in Science: 15 Women in History You Should Know" by Danni Washington and “50 Women in Technology” by Georgina Ferry, Bridget Greenwood and Ines Almeida.
- A small planet, named 177770 SaulanWu, was discovered in 2005 and officially named after her in 2022. What an honor!
