Columbia University mourns the loss of Nobel Laureate and University Professor Tsung-Dao Lee, a world-renowned physicist. His groundbreaking contributions to his field have left a lasting impact on both theoretical and experimental physics.
When Columbia hired Lee as an assistant professor in 1953, he joined what was arguably one of the greatest Physics Departments ever assembled. In 1956, he was named a full professor, and a year later, when he was barely 31, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering that subatomic particles, contrary to what scientists thought, are not always symmetrical. He went on to spend nearly six decades at Columbia, retiring in 2011, at the age of 84.
Lee’s work spanned a wide range of fields, including quantum field theory, particle theory, nuclear physics, statistical mechanics, fluid mechanics, and astrophysics. He was a beloved teacher and colleague for whom generations of Columbians will always be grateful.
-Minouche Shafik
