Christine Qiong Wu is a retired Chinese and Canadian mechanical engineer whose research focused on the mechanics of moving vehicles, walking robots, and walking people. She is a lung cancer survivor, and in her retirement has worked as a lung cancer patient research advocate.
Wu has a 1986 bachelor's degree from Peking University. She moved to Canada for graduate study, earned a master's degree from the University of British Columbia in 1990, and completed a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba in 1996. [1]
After completing her Ph.D., she remained on the University of Manitoba faculty, becoming a professor of mechanical engineering. [2] She was given the NSERC/MCI Industrial Research Chair in Heavy Ground Vehicles and Transportation Equipment in 2012. [3] She served as president of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering for 2012–2014. [1]
Wu went on leave from her faculty position in 2015, after a diagnosis of lung cancer. [4] Although never a smoker herself, she has worked to publicize the connection between smoking and lung cancer. [5] She celebrated the eight-year anniversary of her diagnosis, and five-year anniversary of having a stable diagnosis, in 2023. She has also begun work as the leader of a research team for the Canadian Cancer Society. [6]
Wu was named a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) in 2009, [7] and a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2014. [8]
She was the 2016 recipient of the C. N. Downing Award of the CSME, [7] and of the Judith Weiszmann Women in Engineering Champion Award of Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba. [2]
In 2019 the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer gave her their Advocate Travel Award in recognition of her work in lung cancer education and advocacy. [4]