A 24-hour lab Noemie Koller, an early student of Wu's who became Rutgers University's first female professor, once described Wu thus: "She worked herself as hard as her students ... very demanding ... she wanted people to work late at night, early in the morning, all day Saturday, all day Sunday, to never take time off."
不打烊的實驗室吳健雄早期的學生、後來成為羅格斯大學第一位女性教授的諾咪・寇樂，曾經描述吳健雄，「自己努力工作，也逼學生努力工作… 要求晚也做、早也做，星期六做、星期天也做，一刻都不得休息。」