Ray Wu was a student at Yenching University when the escalating civil war in China forced his family to emigrate to the United States in 1948. There, his father, biochemist Hsien Wu, secured a faculty position at the University of Alabama. Ray Wu pursued further studies in biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, later joining Cornell University, where he developed and performed the first technique in DNA sequencing. Despite the challenges of being a minority and not receiving credit for his contributions, Wu's work laid the groundwork for modern DNA sequencing methods. Outside of his scientific endeavors, Ray Wu enjoyed spending time with family and friends and had a passion for music and photography.