Among her important contributions to physics, Wu was the first to confirm the theory of beta decay proposed by Enrico Fermi in 1933 about how radioactive atoms become more stable and less radioactive.
吴健雄对物理学做出诸多重要贡献。其中，她首次证实了恩利克·费米1933年提出的贝塔衰变理论，该理论解释了放射性原子如何变得更为稳定且放射性降低。
To get accurate results from experiments, she worked very hard day and night at a laboratory and gained a reputation for accuracy. There was a saying among physicists: If the experiment was done by Wu, it must be correct.
为了得到精确的实验结果，她在实验室日夜努力工作，其严谨被同事赞誉，物理学家同行中有这样一句话：如果实验是吴健雄做的，就一定是对的。
She was always cautious in experiments, spending a great deal of time calibrating instruments. She didn't start collecting data until she fully understood the instruments. Her experiments overturned many previous experimental results and theories, said Samuel Chao Chung Ting, American physicist and Nobel Prize winner, in a video for the anniversary events on May 31.
她总是严谨对待实验，花费大量时间校准仪器，必须完全掌握了仪器之后才开始收集数据。她的实验推翻了之前的很多实验结果和理论，美国物理学家、诺贝尔奖获得者丁肇中在5月31日的周年纪念日活动中通过视频说道。
Despite her widely known achievements, she was not treated fairly due to gender inequality. She started working at Columbia University in 1944 but did not get the position of assistant professor until 1952. She was promoted to professor in 1958.
尽管她为人瞩目的成就，因为性别不平等，她并未被公平对待。她1944年在哥伦毕业大学开始工作，直到1952年才成为助理教授，1958年升为教授。
As a victim of gender inequality, in 1964, she asked her audience at a symposium at Massachusetts Institute of Technology "whether the tiny atoms and nuclei, or the mathematical symbols, or the DNA molecules have any preference for either masculine or feminine treatment".
作为性别不平等的受害者，1964年她在麻省理工学院专题研讨会上问听众，“小小的原子、原子核、数学符号或者DNA分子是否也对男性或女性来操作有偏好”。
She indeed had set a great model for women and girls to "see the limitlessness of life", and "what can be gained by pushing past the barriers around you", wrote Jada Yuan in an article when she recalled the time spent with Wu, her grandmother.
她的确为女性和女孩们树立了伟大的榜样，让她们“看到人生的无限”，以及“越过障碍后能够取得的成就”，袁嘉达在回忆与其祖母往昔时光的文章中写道。
In 1973, Wu returned to China for the first time after departing the homeland 37 years previously. In the following years, she came back nine times, visiting her hometown, giving lectures and academic reports at universities about the latest scientific development.
1973年，吴健雄在阔别祖国37年后首次回到中国，此后也回国9次，回访故乡，在大学就最新的科学进展做讲座和学术报告。
In 1986, Wu set up a scholarship at Nanjing University (which developed from the National Central University) to reward students excelling in physics. In 1992, she established the Wu Chien-shiung Library in the school of physics there, which housed tens of thousands of academic books from around the world.
1986年，吴健雄在南京大学（前身为国立中央大学）为物理学出色的学生设立奖学金。1992年，她在南京大学物理学院建立了吴健雄图书馆，藏有数万本来自全世界的学术书籍。
Wu lived a simple life, but she set up a funding program in homage to her father with her life savings, rewarding students and teachers at Mingde Senior Middle School, and donating money to build the school and buy computers.
吴健雄生活简朴，但是为了向父亲致敬，她用一生的积蓄建立了基金项目，奖励明德高级中学的师生，并捐款来建校、购买电脑。
On Feb 16, 1997, Wu died in the US. According to her will, she was buried in her hometown Taicang. Chiang Tsai-chien, the author of her biography, Madame Wu Chien-shiung: The First Lady of Physics Research, wrote the epitaph that starts, "Here's buried the most prominent female physicist Wu Chien-shiung", and ends, "she was a distinguished world citizen, and was forever a Chinese".
1997年2月16日，吴健雄于美国去世。根据遗愿，她被埋葬在家乡太仓。其传记《吴健雄夫人：物理学研究第一夫人》作者江才健在其墓志铭中这样开篇，“这里埋葬着世界最杰出的女性物理学家”，结尾是“她是一位杰出的世界公民，一个永远的中国人。”
