Wen Ho Lee
| Wen Ho Lee 李文和 |
|
|---|---|
| Born |
December 21, 1939 Nantō, Taichū Prefecture, Taiwan, Empire of Japan (modern-day Nantou City, Taiwan) |
| Residence | Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S. |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Nationality | Taiwanese |
| Fields | Nuclear Physics |
| Institutions |
Los Alamos National Laboratory Texas A&M University University of California |
| Alma mater |
National Cheng Kung University Texas A&M University |
| Known for |
Nuclear proliferation with Chinese nuclear program Mathematical work in Nuclear explosion and in fluid dynamics |
Wen Ho Lee (Chinese: 李文和; pinyin: Lǐ Wénhé; born December 21, 1939) is a Taiwanese-American scientist who worked for the University of California at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He created simulations of nuclear explosions for the purposes of scientific inquiry, as well as for improving the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. A federal grand jury indicted him on charges of stealing secrets about the U.S. nuclear arsenal for the People's Republic of China (PRC) in December 1999.
After federal investigators were unable to prove these initial accusations, the government conducted a separate investigation and was ultimately only able to charge Lee with improper handling of restricted data, one of the original 59 indictment counts, to which he pleaded guilty as part of a plea settlement. In June 2006, Lee received $1.6 million from the federal government and five media organizations as part of a settlement of a civil suit he had filed against them for leaking his name to the press before any formal charges had been filed against him. Federal judge James A. Parker eventually apologized to Lee for denying him bail and putting him in solitary confinement, and excoriated the government for misconduct and misrepresentations to the court.
Wen Ho Lee was born on December 21, 1939 to a Hoklo family in Taiwan during Japanese rule. He graduated from Keelung High School in the northern part of the island in 1959, after which he attended National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering in 1963.
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