Ray Wu

Ray Wu ( born August 14, 1928 in Beijing as Wú Rui, Chinese吴瑞/吴瑞, † February 10, 2008 in Ithaca, New York ) was a molecular biologist and geneticist who conducted research at Cornell University since 1966. He was considered one of the pioneers of so-called green genetic engineering. It dealt mainly with the development of genetically modified rice varieties against heat, drought, pests and salinity should be more resistant than conventionally bred rice.

Ray Wu was the son of molecular biology pioneer Hsien Wu (Chinese吴宪/吴宪, Pinyin Wú Xiàn, 1893-1959 ). He settled in 1948, at the height of the Chinese Civil War, from China to the USA, where he received his academic training. In 1950 he passed the Bachelor's degree examination in chemistry at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, 1955 was followed by the Doctor degree in biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1961 he accepted the citizenship of the United States. From 1966 he was a member of Cornell University, first as associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and from 1972 as a full professor. In 2004 he was appointed the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics. In addition to his commitments in the U.S., he had since the beginning of the 1990s, both in Taiwan and in the PRC held lectureships and was advisor to the governments of both states.

As early as 1970 he had developed the first method to sequence DNA and clone. Frederick Sanger developed Wu's method continuing and won it in 1980 the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. On Wu's early studies, the methods commonly used today for the analysis of genes based up to the Human Genome Project and the large number of sequenced organisms.

Wu died on 10 February 2008 at Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, NY at the age of 79 years. The Chinese Biological Investigators Society ( CBIS ) announced after his death, to establish among Wu's name a foundation that aims to promote scientific exchange between Asia and the West.