Chen Ning Yang, a Nobel Prize winner and a leading figure in the field of physics, has passed away at the age of 103, as reported by Chinese state media.An announcement from CCTV attributed his passing to health complications.
Yang, alongside fellow theoretical physicist Lee Tsung-Dao, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957 for their groundbreaking work on parity laws, which paved the way for significant discoveries about elementary particles – the fundamental components of matter.
He also held a professorship at Tsinghua University in Beijing and served as the honorary dean of the Institute for Advanced Study at that same institution. Born in 1922 in Anhui province of eastern China, Yang was the eldest of five siblings and was raised on the grounds of Tsinghua University, where his father taught mathematics. In his youth, Yang expressed to his parents: “I aspire to win a Nobel Prize one day.” He realized this ambition at the age of 35 when his collaboration with Lee on the parity law earned them the accolade in 1957.
The Nobel committee commended their “insightful exploration… which led to significant findings related to elementary particles. Yang obtained his undergraduate degree in science in 1942 from National Southwest Associated University in Kunming, and subsequently earned a master’s degree at Tsinghua University. Following the conclusion of the Sino-Japanese War, he relocated to the United States on a fellowship from Tsinghua and attended the University of Chicago, working under the renowned Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, the creator of the world’s first nuclear reactor.
Throughout a distinguished career, Yang engaged in various domains of physics but kept a strong focus on statistical mechanics and symmetry principles. He was honored with the Albert Einstein Commemorative Award in 1957 and received an honorary doctorate from Princeton University in 1958.Yang’s first marriage was to Chih Li Tu in 1950, with whom he welcomed three children. After Tu’s passing in 2003, Chen Ning Yang entered into a second marriage with Weng Fan, who is over 50 years younger than him. They first met in 1995 during a physics seminar, reuniting in 2004, at which point Yang referred to her as his “final blessing from God.