Chen Ning Yang
- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yang (杨).
| Chen-Ning Franklin Yang | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1 October 1922 Hefei, Anhui, China. |
| Residence | China |
| Nationality |  United States (1964–) |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Institute for Advanced Study State University of New York at Stony Brook Chinese University of Hong Kong Tsinghua University University of Chicago |
| Alma mater | National Southwestern Associated University Tsinghua University University of Chicago |
| Doctoral advisor | Edward Teller |
| Doctoral students | Bill Sutherland, Alexander Wu Chao, C.K. Lai |
| Known for | Parity violation Yang-Mills theory Yang-Baxter equation |
| Notable awards |
Nobel Prize in Physics (1957) |
Chen-Ning Franklin Yang (simplified Chinese: 杨振宁; traditional Chinese: 楊振寧; pinyin: Yáng Zhènníng) (born October 1, 1922)[1] is a Chinese-American physicist who worked on statistical mechanics and particle physics. He, together with Tsung-dao Lee, received the 1957 Nobel prize in physics for their work on parity nonconservation of weak interaction. Yang naturalized as a United States citizen in 1964.
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Biography
Yang was born in Hefei, Anhui, China, his father Yang Ko-Chuen (simplified Chinese: 杨武之; pinyin: Yáng Wǔzhī) (1896–1973) was a mathematician and his mother Luó Mènghuà (罗孟华) was a housewife. Yang attended elementary school and high school in Beijing, and in the autumn of 1937 his family moved to Hefei after Japanese invaded China. In 1938 they moved to Kunming, Yunnan, where the National Southwestern Associated University was located. In the same year, as a second year student, Yang passed the entrance examination and studied at the National Southwestern Associated University. He received his bachelor's degree in 1942, the thesis being about the application of group theory to molecular spectra, under the supervision of Wu Ta-you (吴大猷) (1907–2000). He continued to study graduate courses there for two years under the supervision of Wang Zhuxi (王竹溪) (1911–1983), working on statistical mechanics. In 1944 he received his master's degree was awarded a scholarship known as the Boxer Indemnity (simplified Chinese: 庚子赔款; traditional Chinese: 庚子賠款; pinyin: Gēngzǐ péikuǎn), a scholarship set up by the United States government using the funds raised from the money China was forced to pay out following the Boxer Rebellion. He was delayed for one year, during which time he taught in a middle school as a teacher and studied field theory.
From 1946, Yang studied at The University of Chicago with Edward Teller (1908–2003), where he received his doctorate in 1948 and remained for a year as assistant to Enrico Fermi. In 1949 he moved to the Institute for Advanced Study where he began a period of fruitful collaboration with Tsung-Dao Lee. In 1966 he moved to the State University of New York at Stony Brook and became the Albert Einstein Professor of Physics and the first director of a newly founded Institute for Theoretical Physics which is now known as C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics. He retired from Stony Brook in 1999 as Emeritus Professor. In 2010, Stony Brook University honored Yang's contributions to the university by naming its newest dormitory building Yang College[2]. That same year, he was the honoree at Stony Brook University's annual Gala of the Stars fundraiser.
He has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (中国科学院, People's Republic of China), the Academia Sinica (中央研究院, Republic of China), the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society, etc. and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Princeton University (1958), Moscow State University (1992), Chinese University of Hong Kong (1997), etc.
Yang visited the Chinese mainland in 1971 for the first time after the thaw in China-US relations, and has subsequently made great efforts to help the Chinese physics community to rebuild the research atmosphere which was destroyed by the radical political movements during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. After retiring from Stony Brook he returned as honorary director of Tsinghua University, Beijing, where he is the Huang Jibei – Lu Kaiqun professor at the Center for Advanced Study (CASTU).
Personal life
Yang married Chih-li Tu (traditional Chinese: 杜致禮; pinyin: Dù Zhìlǐ), a teacher, in 1950 and has two sons and a daughter with her: Franklin Jr., Gilbert and Eulee (in order of age). His father-in-law was the Kuomintang General Du Yuming. His wife died in the winter of 2003. At the age of 82, Yang became engaged to 28-year-old Weng Fan (simplified Chinese: 翁帆; pinyin: Wēng Fān) who was studying for her master's degree at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. They married in early 2005.
Awards
- Nobel Prize in Physics (1957)
- Rumford Prize (1980)
- National Medal of Science (1986)
- Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture and Medal (1988)
- Benjamin Franklin Medal (1993)
- Bower Award (1994)
- Albert Einstein Medal (1995)
- N. Bogoliubov Prize (1996)
- Lars Onsager Prize (1999)
- King Faisal International Prize (2001)
See also
- Parity violation
- Yang-Mills theory
- Yang-Baxter equation
- Yangian
- Lee–Yang theorem
- Wu-Yang monopole
- Center for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University
Notes
- ↑ Bing-An Li, Yuefan Deng. "Biography of C.N. Yang" (PDF). http://insti.physics.sunysb.edu/~yang/yangbio.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-11. "His birth date was erroneously recorded as September 22, 1922 in his 1945 passport. He has used this incorrect date on all subsequent official documents."
- ↑ http://thinksb.com/2010/03/exclusive-new-dorm-likely-to-honor-nobel-laureate/
References
- Yang, C.N. (1952) [1952]. Special problems of statistical mechanics. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ASIN B0007FZHH4.
- Yang, C.N. (1963) [1961]. Elementary Particles: A Short History of Some Discoveries in Atomic Physics. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ASIN B000E1CBGG.
- Yang, C.N. (1983) [1983]. Selected papers 1945-1980, with commentary (Chen Ning Yang). San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. ISBN 0-7167-1406-X.
- "C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP)". http://insti.physics.sunysb.edu. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
- Sutherland, Bill (2004), Beautiful Models, World Scientific Publishing Company, ISBN 978-9812388599, http://www.worldscibooks.com/physics/5552.html
- Yang, C.N. (1983), Selected Papers 1945-1980, With Commentary, W.H. Freeman & Company, ISBN 978-0716714064, http://books.google.com/books?id=43K5ym_wVE0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Selected+Papers+1945-1980,+With+Commentary&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
External links
- Professor Chen Ning Yang (homepage - Institute for Advanced Study in Tsinghua University)
- Chen Ning Yang (homepage - State University of New York at Stony Brook)
- C.N. Yang's Home Page (homepage - The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
- Nobel biography
- Symmetries and Reflections (C.N. Yang retirement symposium at the State University of New York at Stony Brook)
- The CN Yang Scholars Programme at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
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Book:Nobel Prize in Physics
Category:Nobel laureates in Physics
Portal:Physics
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