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Henry Wu
Appearances	Jurassic Park The Lost World (mentioned)
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Role	Chief Geneticist for Jurassic Park
Status	Deceased
Born	1955-1956
Died	August 19, 1989

Henry Wu, PhD was the chief geneticist for Jurassic Park and was responsible for creating the dinosaurs. He was described as a slender man at thirty-three years old.

History

Jurassic Park

Two weeks after the funeral of geneticist Norman Atherton, eccentric venture capitalist John Hammond came to see Wu. When Henry Wu was first recruited by Hammond, he was a twenty-eight-year-old graduate student getting his doctorate at Stanford under the chief lab scientist Norman Atherton. Everyone in the lab knew that Atherton had had some association with Hammond, although the details were never clear. Norman always said Wu was the best geneticist in his lab, and it was this recommendation that caught Hammond's attention, making Wu the clear candidate to help Hammond with his secret project. Hammond gave Wu $10 million a year in funding for five years to take a crack at the impossible, what he called "cloning reptiles" at the time. The project turned out to be cloning dinosaurs, more like avian cloning than reptilian cloning.

Halfway through the original novel, Hammond and Wu have a discussion. Wu says that they could and should make better, slower and tamer dinosaurs. Hammond scoffs at the idea, saying that they have real dinosaurs; who would want more? Wu's reply is that they should not bother with reality because the people coming to see Jurassic Park do not want reality, they want their expectations. With Hammond's dismissal, Wu is forced to realize that Hammond cares far less for his opinion than he did when Wu was first hired. Around the time of this conversation, it is hinted that Wu may have had some romantic interest in Marìa, a silent serving girl whom he could not take his eyes off of.

Prompted by Alan Grant later in the novel, Wu checked the dinosaurs' DNA to find which species had amphibian DNA. He discovered that the species that were breeding all contained amphibian DNA. Wu did not understand the connection between amphibian DNA and the dinosaurs being able to breed, as Grant never had a chance to explain it to him, but nevertheless, Wu was then convinced that they could breed. Although he would never admit it, Wu was strangely proud that he had recreated animals so lifelike that they could reproduce themselves. Shortly after, it was Wu who discovered that Nedry had stolen embryos, worth between 2 and 10 million dollars.

When Wu and the rest of those in the control room realized that the park had been running on backup power, Wu's job was to stay in the control room until Arnold could reboot the system. Then, Wu was supposed to start up the computer and restore power to the fences. Unfortunately, he was forced to rejoin the others in the Safari Lodge after two failed attempts to reboot the system from the maintenance shed. On his way to the lodge, Wu picked up an injured Robert Muldoon and brought him back with him in the gas Jeep. Later on, over the radio, Wu talked Grant through rebooting the park's systems.

Shortly before his death in the novel, Wu reflected on his hand in cloning Hammond's dinosaurs. He was secretly proud that the dinosaurs had been breeding, as it meant that he had recreated the animals perfectly. Soon afterwards, Wu, while telling Ellie Sattler to come back to the lodge, is ambushed from above by Velociraptors and devoured alive after being sliced down the stomach while lying on his back.

Hammond primarily blamed Wu as the reason for the downfall of the park towards the end of the novel, concluding that Wu had been too preoccupied with the idea of making improvements on the animals in Version 4.4, instead of making actual, original dinosaurs. Hammond found faults with many of his employees, telling himself that next time he created a park, he would do better.

The Lost World

He naturally did not appear in person having being killed off in the first novel, but was mentioned and referenced to as "H. Wu" in several notes and old memos from the old InGen computer and Laboratory on Site B. The memos mostly regarded improvements to dinosaur production and the mention of the disease DX. It is also certain that he was the Chinese scientist wearing the shirt that read "InGen Site B Research Facility" that Richard Levine found in InGen files.

Trivia

• Dr. Wu was shown as not very knowledgeable about the dinosaurs. He made multiple errors like saying they had four Cearadactylus instead of six, and calling the carnivore Coelurus a herbivore named Coelurosaurus.