Technology, where he earned his D.Sc. in physical metallurgy in 1948 and then worked as a post-doctoral researcher. From 1949 to 1950 he worked as an engineer for a naval research project in the Department of Material Science and Engineering of Syracuse University. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1950. Despite his career success, Wu was offended by the racism he experienced in the American society. He later recalled an incident when he was shopping at a high-end clothing store, the salesperson assumed he was a laundryman coming to pick up clothes for a customer. Career in the People's Republic of China After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Wu returned to China in early 1951 and became a professor in the Department of Metallurgical Engineering at Tangshan Jiaotong University (now Southwest Jiaotong University). Later that year, he transferred to the Shanghai Institute of Metallurgy (SIM) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. At SIM he developed manganese molybdenum steel, which became widely produced in steel works in China, and he received the State Natural Science Award (Third Class) in 1956. He was later promoted to Deputy Director of SIM. In 1961, Wu was put in charge of the development of membrane separation technology for separating uranium-235, used in nuclear fission chain reaction, from uranium-238, the predominant isotope of uranium that cannot sustain a chain reaction. It was an essential technology for making nuclear bombs, but highly challenging because of the similar physical and chemical properties of the two isotopes. Under Wu's leadership, a team of more than 60 scientists developed the technology at SIM in three years. On 16 October 1964, China exploded its first nuclear bomb. In the 1970s, Wu researched semiconductors and large-scale integrated circuit, laying the foundation for the production of China's first integrated circuit at SIM. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he made significant discoveries in the research of the superconductor yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO). Honours and recognition For his achievement in nuclear research, Wu was awarded the National Invention Prize (First Class) in 1984 and a Special Prize of the State Science and Technology Progress Award in 1985. In 1999, he was among the 23 scientists awarded the Two Bombs, One Satellite Meritorious Medal. He also received the Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Technological Sciences. He was elected