Wu Ziliang (; 25 December 1917 – 24 May 2008), also known as Tsu-Liang Wu, was a Chinese materials engineer, physical metallurgist and physicist. He led the team that developed the essential membrane separation technology which enabled China to separate uranium-235 used for making its first nuclear bomb. He was awarded the Two Bombs, One Satellite Meritorious Medal in 1999, and also made significant contributions to steel metallurgy, semiconductors, and superconductivity research. Wu was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Early life Wu was born in December 1917 in Pujiang County, Zhejiang, Republic of China. He was the seventh and youngest child of his father, a Qing dynasty xiucai who later became a lawyer. When Wu was a child, his father died and the family fell into poverty. He worked as a cowherd for two years and did not attend elementary school until 1926. He excelled in school and tested into Zhejiang Provincial No. 1 Middle School and later Hangzhou High School, two of the best schools in the provincial capital Hangzhou. Second Sino-Japanese War In 1935, Wu was admitted to the Mining and Metallurgy Department of Peiyang University (now Tianjin University). A year later, he transferred to the newly established Department of Aeronautical Mechanics. After the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937, Tianjin fell under Japanese occupation and Peiyang University evacuated to Xi'an in inland China. In 1938, Peiyang and other universities exiled from the occupied areas established the Northwestern Engineering Institute in a mountainous village in Chenggu County, using a temple as its classroom. Despite the difficult wartime conditions, Wu later recalled that the professors and students were highly competent and motivated. He was especially impressed by his professor Wei Shoukun and the older classmate Ye Peida. Upon graduation in 1939, Wu worked as a junior designer at the Sino-American Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Leiyun (or Loiwing), Yunnan. In 1942, the aircraft factory was bombed by the Japanese and forced to move to Kunming, and Wu worked as an engineer at the Central Machinery Works. He was later dismissed from the factory for refusing to join the Kuomintang. Career in the United States In 1943, Wu went to the United States to pursue graduate studies with financial support from his eldest sister, who was a doctor. He attended Carnegie Institute of