Shanghai now hosts a real Nobel Prize medal after renowned Chinese-American physicist Tsung-Dao Lee donated his medal to the city's newly opened library named after him.
The medal is part of a 70,000-item collection, which also includes Lee's diploma, academic papers, research manuscripts, letters, scientific and artistic works, awards and books, now housed in the four-story library located at Jiao Tong University's Minhang campus.
"My purpose in donating all my scientific archives and manuscripts to Shanghai Jiao Tong University is to benefit later generations. I hope the Tsung-Dao Lee Library may inspire young students to climb to the heights of science," the 88-year-old Lee said in a video message during the opening ceremony.
"Cultivating scientific talent cultivation should not be limited to teaching in class," he added.
The ceremony was attended by James Lee, son of Lee and Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
"Visitors can see life-long scientific research of my father and the modern history of scientific development in China," Lee said.
Born in Shanghai in 1926, Lee studied at the National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming before moving to the University of Chicago in 1946 under a government fellowship. It was in Chicago that he was chosen by Nobel Prize-winning nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi as his PhD student. Lee later joined Columbia University in 1953, where he currently resides as a professor.
In 1957, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with fellow Chinese-American Chen-Ning Yang for their studies on the violation of parity law in quantum physics. In addition, Lee was also known for his philanthropic work in China, including founding the China-United States Physics Examination Application program and contributing to the development of the Beijing Electron Positron Collider.