The Arts and Sciences community mourns the loss of Columbia University Professor Emeritus Tsung-Dao Lee, who passed away on August 4th at the age of 97.
A world-renowned scientist, educator, and long-time member of the Department of Physics, Professor Lee was among the leading physicists of his generation: a towering figure who expanded our understanding of the laws of physics and, in particular, the interactions among the subatomic particles out of which our universe is constructed. He also helped usher in a new era of international collaboration in scientific research and education between the United States and China.
Professor Lee earned his PhD at the University of Chicago under the tutelage of Enrico Fermi – another legendary Columbian. In 1953, he joined the Columbia community as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics, where he taught for six decades until his retirement in 2011 as University Professor and the Enrico Fermi Professor of Physics. As a physicist, he is best known for his work with Chen Ning Yang for their discoveries related to the “the so-called parity laws” for which they were awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics. This recognition followed the ground-breaking experimental work of C.S. Wu, a third renowned Columbian, showing that the theory of Lee and Yang was correct. Professor Lee was the second-youngest scientist to receive the Nobel Prize at the time, at age 31. He was also the youngest person at the time to receive tenure at Columbia University, at age 29.
Outside the University, Professor Lee served as founding Director of the Riken-Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) Center from 1997-2003. As a leading US scientist, he was influential in initiating important large-scale projects; among the most significant was the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), operating from 2000 until the present at BNL, which provided some of the first evidence for the quark gluon plasma, a new state of matter that dominated the universe a few microseconds after its creation.
As a champion of international science education and cooperation, Professor Lee helped establish important new academic programs, including the first undergraduate school for gifted youth and the first postdoctoral educational program in China. He also created the China-US Physics Examination and Application (CUSPEA) program, under which more than 900 of the top Chinese undergraduates in physics came to the US over a ten-year period for PhD studies, substantially enriching physics in the US and China. For his contributions to international cooperation in science research in the US, China, Japan, and Italy, he was awarded some of those nation’s highest distinctions.
“His groundbreaking contributions to his field have left a lasting impact on both theoretical and experimental physics,” said Columbia University President Minouche Shafik in a statement. “He was a beloved teacher and colleague for whom generations of Columbians will always be grateful.”
