| Chen-Ning Franklin Yang | |
|---|---|
| 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 works 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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Yang was born in Hefei, Anhui, China, his father Yang Ko-Chuen (Chinese: 楊武之; pinyin: Yáng Wǔzhī) (1896–1973) was a mathematician and his mother Luo Meng-hua (羅孟華) was a housewife. Yang attended elementary 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 Chu-hsi (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 (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 (Taiwan)), 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 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).
Yang married Chih-li Tu (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. Chih-li Tu died in the winter of 2003. At the age of 82, Yang became engaged to 28-year-old Weng Fan (Chinese: 翁帆; pinyin: Wēng Fān) who was studying for her master's degree at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. They married in December 2004.
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