Ray Wu

Ray Jui Wu (Chinese: 吴瑞; pinyin: Wú Ruì; Wade–Giles: Wu Jui, 14 August 1928 – 10 February 2008) was a Chinese-born American geneticist. A pioneer of plant genetic engineering, Wu was Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Molecular Genetics and Biology at Cornell University.

Wu was the son of Hsien Wu, also a biologist. Wu was born in Beijing in China, his ancestral hometown was Fuzhou of Fujian Province. Wu was educated in the United States and obtained his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1955.

Wu did important work in DNA sequencing and genetic engineering, and is regarded as one of founding fathers of plant genetic engineering. Wu also was an active educator, and created the CUSBEA (China-US Biochemistry Examination and Application). In 1999, at Cornell, Wu donated US$500,000 to establish the Ray Wu Graduate Fellowship in Molecular Biology and Genetics to support biology graduate students.

Wu spent most of his scientific career at Cornell. Wu was an Academician of Academia Sinica (Taiwan), and a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Wu's former student Jack W. Szostak was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The Ray Wu Memorial Fund (RWMF) is a nonprofit 501c3 organization. RWMF administers the annual Ray Wu Prize for Excellence in Life Sciences that is established to inspire Asia's most promising young Ph.D. students to become future leaders in life sciences. For more details, visit the website raywumemorialfund.