Amy Wu

Nov 1, 2024 | scmp.com | Amy Wu

At a recent family gathering, the dinner ended in yet another spirited argument. At the tail end of the meal and away from the gathering, my aunt insisted on paying while my sister and I were adamant that it should be our treat. This was our father’s 77th birthday, not to mention a rare occasion on which family members from two coasts had convened. It ping-ponged back and forth with my aunt thrusting money into my pocket and me fishing it out and chasing after her.

Aug 9, 2024 | scmp.com | Amy Wu

When I was five, my parents bought me a piano. It was a very East Asian thing to do. East Asian parents tend to buy their children either a piano or violin and sign them up for lessons, and for me it was the piano. It was a dark mahogany Baldwin, and a novelty for me to sit on the bench and swing my legs, my feet just grazing the floor. An ingrained memory: my piano teacher looking at me sternly as I started playing a tune I had heard.

May 13, 2024 | nature.com | Amy Wu |Joshua L. Wang |Kenji Watanabe |Takashi Taniguchi |Michael T. Pettes |Chaitanya A. Gadre | +5 more

AbstractConfining materials to two-dimensional forms changes the behaviour of the electrons and enables the creation of new devices. However, most materials are challenging to produce as uniform, thin crystals. Here we present a synthesis approach where thin crystals are grown in a nanoscale mould defined by atomically flat van der Waals (vdW) materials. By heating and compressing bismuth in a vdW mould made of hexagonal boron nitride, we grow ultraflat bismuth crystals less than 10 nm thick.

Feb 6, 2024 | scmp.com | Amy Wu

A friend asks if I have folded lucky red envelopes before. I tell them about the hongbao workshop I will be leading. There’s some hesitation and a “hmmm”. No, I admit, but there’s always a first. Could someone even make their own envelopes? The inspiration to hold a workshop at my local library on folding red envelopes – known as hongbao in Mandarin and lai see in Cantonese – for Lunar New Year was sparked by a desire to share more about my culture. I am first and foremost a Chinese-American.

Sep 30, 2023 | scmp.com | Amy Wu

Mondays are history evenings for my father and me. Since 2021, my father and I have had a standing phone call where I ask him a question related to a milestone in his life, or some aspect of how he feels about life, love and other broader topics. I tape the call and save the recording. A couple of years on, there are well over 100 recordings. In the beginning, my father, who has spent much of his life and career as a professor, questioned the notion that his story would merit the time.