Chen-Ning Yang

1 October 1922 – 18 October 2025

Chen-Ning Yang (1922-2025) was a Chinese theoretical physicist who co-developed Yang-Mills gauge theory, a foundation of the Standard Model of particle physics, and shared the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics with Tsung-Dao Lee for proposing parity non-conservation in weak interactions. After a long career in the United States he returned to China, spending his final decades at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Comparing
Compare

Lived at the same time

Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Chen-Ning Yang.

Life events

Born in Hefei, Anhui Province, China
1 October 1922

Yang was born the eldest son of mathematician Yang Wu-Chih, who later taught at Tsinghua University.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Graduated from National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming
1942

Yang earned his bachelor's degree in physics at the wartime united university, followed by a master's degree from Tsinghua University in 1944.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Education ✓
Moved to the United States for graduate study
1945

Yang travelled to the United States on a Boxer Indemnity Scholarship and enrolled at the University of Chicago.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relocation ✓
Earned PhD from the University of Chicago
1948

Yang completed his doctorate under Edward Teller and worked briefly as an assistant to Enrico Fermi.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Education ✓
Published Yang-Mills gauge theory with Robert Mills
1954

At Brookhaven National Laboratory, Yang and Mills formulated non-abelian gauge theory, which later became the mathematical framework of the Standard Model.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Proposed parity non-conservation in weak interactions with Tsung-Dao Lee
October 1956

Yang and Lee published their paper questioning parity conservation in weak interactions, a prediction confirmed experimentally by Chien-Shiung Wu.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics
10 December 1957

Yang shared the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics with Tsung-Dao Lee for their investigation of parity laws in particle physics.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Became founding director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook
1966

Yang left the Institute for Advanced Study to become Albert Einstein Professor and first director of what is now the C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook University.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Returned to China to join Tsinghua University
2003

Yang moved permanently to Beijing as a professor at Tsinghua University, and in 2015 he renounced his U.S. citizenship and restored his Chinese citizenship.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relocation ✓
Died in Beijing, China
18 October 2025

Yang died in Beijing at the age of 103.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓