Luke Chia-Liu Yuan

Luke Chia-Liu Yuan (simplified Chinese: 袁家骝; traditional Chinese: 袁家騮; pinyin: Yuán Jiāliú; Wade–Giles: Yüan Chia-liu; April 5, 1912 – February 11, 2003) was a Chinese-American physicist. He is the husband of the famous physicist Chien-Shiung Wu, who disproved the conservation of parity.

Early life and education

Born in

Yuan would make trips with his mother, sister, and two brothers every New Year's Day to visit his Kewen's older brother Yuan Keding. Keding had the same views on power and politics as Yuan Shikai and required Luke to dress up formally and kowtow to him during every visit, which made Luke intimidated of him. The family had to depend on Luke's uncle Keding for financial support.

Luke studied in Anyang then at age 13, he went to Nankai High School in Tianjin for a month, but then transferred to The Academy of Modern Learning, run by a London-based missionary. Luke received a rather good science education there, with a Cambridge University educated Dr. Hart teaching physics, and his maternal uncle teaching mathematics. Luke matriculated at the College of Industry and Commerce in 1928 as a major in engineering.

He transferred to Yenching University in 1930, where the Chinese theoretical physicist Xie Yu-Ming was a professor. Luke's interest in radio led to radio communications as a serious hobby. He graduated in 1932, stayed in the graduate school for two more years, and received a master's degree. It was after graduation that Luke worked in Tangshan Coal Mine for one year. The President of Yenching University and later US Ambassador to China,

After Yuan attended Yenching University in Beijing he would go to the University of California at Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology to study physics. He began living in the United States in 1936.

That same year, he attended the University of California, Berkeley and met renowned physicist

Since the physics department head Raymond Birge would not provide full scholarship grants to Yuan and Wu, Yuan transferred to Caltech, where he did his doctoral training under the Nobel laureate Millikan.[6]^[4]: 262

Wu frequently teased Yuan since her parents were rebel leaders who fought Yuan Shikai in the early days of

Yuan worked at

Throughout Yuan's marriage, he would often spend time taking care of his son Vincent Yuan and the housework. Yuan learned to become adept at making

Both would attend numerous conventions and win multiple awards all over the world during their retirement.^[12] Six years after Wu died in New York, Yuan would spend more time in China. For over a year, Yuan was ill and died on February 11, 2003, in Beijing.

He is survived by his granddaughter, Jada Yuan or Wu Hanjie (a writer in New York City),^[13] son Vincent (nuclear physicist of New Mexico), and brother Yuan Jiaji of Tianjin.^[11]

Some of the things that he and his wife had were donated to the Cheng-Shiung Wu Memorial Hall, which is located in Nanjing, China. Both of their ashes were buried in front of the Mingde Middle School, where Wu studied as a child.^[14][15]

References

Further reading

• Chiang, Tsai-Chien (2014). Madame Chien-Shiung Wu: The First Lady of Physics Research. World Scientific.
  ISBN 978-981-4374-84-2
  .