Former Faculty: TSUNG DAO (T.D.) LEE

IAS Trustee, 1985–1993; Faculty, School of Mathematics, September 1960–June 1962; Member, School of Mathematics, September 1957–June 1958; Member, School of Mathematics, September 1951–June 1953

Lee was one of several physicists who formed a separate working group within the School of Mathematics in the 1950's and 1960's (the School of Natural Sciences was not established until 1966).

  • * PhD: University of Chicago, 1950
  • * Born: November 24, 1926 in Shanghai, China

Career Highlights:1

  • * Lee made a systematic study of possible P, T, C, and CP violations in weak interactions with other collaborators, including C.N. Yang. In 1957, Lee and Yang were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles."
  • * In the early 1960's, Lee and collaborators at Columbia University initiated the important field of high energy neutrino physics. This led to the famous Lederman-Schwartz-Steinberger experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1962, which showed that there are two different neutrinos associated with the electron and the muon.
  • * Besides particle physics, Lee has been active in statistical mechanics, astrophysics, hydrodynamics, many body system, solid state, and lattice QCD.
  • * Beginning in 1975, Lee and collaborators established the field of non-topological solitons, which led to his work on soliton stars and black holes throughout the 1980's and 1990's.
  • * In 1986, Lee became the Director of the China Center of Advanced Science & Technology (CCAST, WL) in Beijing, China.
  • * In 1997, Lee became the Director of the RIKEN-BNL Research Center, a position he held until 2003.

Awards/Prizes include:

  • * Nobel Prize for Physics (1957)
  • * Albert Einstein Award in Science (1957)
  • * G. Bude Medal (1969 and 1977)
  • * Galileo Galilei Medal (1979)
  • * Science for Peace Prize (1994)
  • * China National-International Cooperation Award (1995)
  • * New York City Science Award (1997)
  • * Pope Joannes Paulus Medal (1999)
  • * New York Academy of Science Award (2000)
  • * The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, Japan (2007)

Additional information may be found on his Columbia University Faculty web page and on his personal web page.

1excerpts from his Biographical Sketch at the China Center of Advanced Science & Technology