After US President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972, Sino-US relations broke the ice and thawed, and a large number of Chinese scientists also visited And returned to China to visit relatives. Among all the Chinese scientists who returned to China to visit, Yuan Jiaqiu and his wife Wu Jianxiong were the most eye-catching.
Yuan Jiaxiao was not simple, at that time he was already a famous physicist in the world, his wife was even more powerful, was one of the world's most outstanding experimental physics scientists, with the titles of "Mother of the Atomic Bomb", "Queen of World Physics", "Madame Curie of the East" and so on. Yuan Jiaxiao also has an identity, his grandfather is the 83-day emperor Yuan Shikai.
In addition, if you rank the seniors according to the Qing gang, even Du Yuesheng must call Yuan Jiaxiao a master uncle (Note: Yuan Kewen joined the Qing gang in 1916, and his master's Zhang Shanting was the "Li" character, and Yuan Kewen was the "big" character. Du Yuesheng's generation is much lower, and it is the "enlightenment" generation). Yuan Jiaxiao has so many identities, which is really shocking. Yuan Jiaxiao, the son of Yuan Kewen, the second son of Yuan Shikai, was born in 1912 in Anyang, Henan.
Although he was born in an extremely prominent family, with the death of his grandfather Yuan Shikai, the Yuan family began to decline. However, Yuan Jiaxiao showed extraordinary talent from an early age, especially in physics and mathematics. In 1930, at the age of 18, Yuan Jialuo came to Yenching University to study under the famous theoretical physicist Xie Yuming.
Under the guidance of the teacher, Yuan Jialuo's academic performance was outstanding. Six years later, Yuan Jiaqiu studied in the United States under the recommendation of Situ Leiden, president of Yenching University. While studying at the California Institute of Technology, Yuan Jiaxiao met his wife, Wu Jianxiong, who had been in love all his life. On May 30, 1942, the day before Wu Jianxiong's birthday, the two had a simple wedding in the United States.
After marriage, the two raised eyebrows and fell in love with each other. Yuan Jiaxiao took the initiative to take on housework, so that Wu Jianxiong had more time to engage in research, so much so that friends ridiculed Wu Jianxiong, "No matter what occasion Wu Jianxiong goes, the person carrying the camera is always Mr. Yuan!" With the support of Yuan Jiaxiao, Wu Jianxiong was able to participate in the most classified "Manhattan Project" in the United States at that time.
For his outstanding contributions, in 1975, Wu Jianxiong was awarded the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific honor in the United States, by President Ford at the White House. Although Yuan and his wife are overseas, the two have not forgotten their roots in China, and the two have traveled to and from China many times since 1972.
During this period, both of them made great contributions to the development of the Beijing Positron-Negative Electron Collider and the Hefei Synchrotron Radiation Accelerator. In 1984, after more than 40 years of absence, Wu Jianxiong returned to her hometown of Liuhe Town, Taicang, Jiangsu Province, and she donated a one-time donation of 1 million US dollars to set up a scholarship.
"Chinese still Chinese." This is what the late master architect I.M. Pei said in commenting on Wu Jianxiong's Chinese complex. His wife's popularity is higher than his own, and Yuan Jialuo does not care at all, in his words, "This is my pride!" Wu Jianxiong died in 1997 at the age of 85, and according to her last wishes, her ashes were buried in her hometown. Yuan Jiaqiu has served as an honorary professor at several universities and has made great contributions to the development of Chinese physics. Yuan died in Beijing in 2003 at the age of 91.