Chen-Ning Yang

Chen-Ning Franklin Yang 楊振寧 杨振宁
Born	(1922-10-01) 1 October 1922 Hefei, Anhui Province, China
Fields	Statistical mechanics Particle physics
Institutions	Stony Brook University Institute for Advanced Study 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
Other academic advisors	Enrico Fermi
Doctoral students	Bill Sutherland Alexander Wu Chao (趙午) C. K. Lai (黎振球) Ed Yen (閻愛德) Ben Fan
Known for	Parity violation Yang–Mills theory Yang–Baxter equation Byers-Yang theorem
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (1957) Rumford Prize (1980) National Medal of Science (1986) Benjamin Franklin Medal (1993) Albert Einstein Medal (1995) Bogolyubov Prize (1996) Lars Onsager Prize (1999)
Spouse	Chi-Li Tu (1950–2003) Fan Weng (2004–present)

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yang.

Chen-Ning Yang
Traditional Chinese	楊振寧
Simplified Chinese	杨振宁
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yáng Zhènníng

Chen-Ning Franklin Yang, also known as Yang Zhenning (simplified Chinese: 杨振宁; traditional Chinese: 楊振寧; pinyin: Yáng Zhènníng; Mandarin pronunciation: [jɑ̌ŋ ts̜ʰə̂n nǐŋ]; born October 1, 1922), is a Chinese-born American physicist who works on statistical mechanics and particle physics. He and Tsung-dao Lee received the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on parity nonconservation of weak interaction. The two proved theoretically that one of the basic quantum-mechanics laws, the conservation of parity, is violated in the so-called weak nuclear reactions, those nuclear processes that result in the emission of beta or alpha particles.

Biography

Yang was born in Hefei, Anhui, China; his father, Yang Wu-Chih (楊武之) (1896–1973), was a mathematician, and his mother, Luo Meng-hua (羅孟華), was a housewife. Yang attended elementary school and high school in Beijing, and in the autumn of 1937 his family moved to Hefei after the 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, with his thesis on the application of group theory to molecular spectra, under the supervision of Ta-You Wu. He continued to study graduate courses there for two years under the supervision of Wang Zhuxi, working on statistical mechanics. In 1944 he received his master's degree from Tsinghua University, which had moved to Kunming during the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), and was subsequently awarded from the Boxer Indemnity, a scholarship set up by the United States government using part of the money China had been forced to pay 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 with Edward Teller (1908–2003) at the University of Chicago, where he received his doctorate in 1948. He remained at the University of Chicago for a year as an assistant to Enrico Fermi. In 1949 he was invited to do his research at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, where he began a period of fruitful collaboration with Tsung-Dao Lee. He was made a permanent member of the Institute in 1952, and full professor in 1955. In 1963, Princeton University Press published his textbook, Elementary Particles. In 1965 he moved to Stony Brook University, where he was named the Albert Einstein Professor of Physics and the first director of the newly founded Institute for Theoretical Physics. Today this institute is known as the C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics.

He retired from Stony Brook University in 1999, assuming the title Emeritus Professor. In 2010, Stony Brook University honored Yang's contributions to the university by naming its newest dormitory building C. N. Yang Hall.

He has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Academia Sinica, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society. He was awarded honorary doctorate degrees by Princeton University (1958), Moscow State University (1992), and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (1997).

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 rebuild the research atmosphere which was destroyed by the radical political movements during the Cultural Revolution. After retiring from Stony Brook he returned as an honorary director of Tsinghua University, Beijing, where he is the Huang Jibei-Lu Kaiqun Professor at the Center for Advanced Study (CASTU). He also sits on the Board of Adjudicators for the Shaw Prize and is a Distinguished Professor-at-Large at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Personal life

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. His father-in-law was a Kuomintang Army General Du Yuming who was taken POW at the end of Chinese civil war. First wife Tu died in the winter of 2003. Yang married then 28-year-old Weng Fan (Chinese: 翁帆; pinyin: Wēng Fān) in December 2004.

Yang became a U.S. citizen in 1964. He now resides in China, and he was granted permanent residency in China in 2005.

On Yang's religious views, he is an agnostic.

Awards

• Nobel Prize in Physics (1957)
• Rumford Prize (1980)
• National Medal of Science (1986)
• Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture and Medal (1988)
• Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences of the American Philosophical Society (1993)
• Bower Award (1994)
• Albert Einstein Medal (1995)
• Lars Onsager Prize (1999)
• King Faisal International Prize (2001)

See also

• Yang–Mills theory
• Yang–Baxter equation
• Yangian
• Lee–Yang theorem
• Byers-Yang theorem
• Wu–Yang monopole
• C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics
• Center for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University

References

Sources

• Lee, T. D. and C. N. Yang. "Elementary Particles and Weak Interactions", Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (1957).
• Yang, C. N. "The Many Body Problem. Physics Monographs No. 6," Rio de Janeiro. Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas, (1960).
• Yang, C. N. "Mathematical Deductions from Some Rules Concerning High-Energy Total Cross Sections," Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (1962).
• Yang, C. N. "Symmetry Principles In Physics. Brookhaven Lecture Series Number 50," Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (October 13, 1965).

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 Stony Brook University)
• The CN Yang Scholars Programme at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• Biography and Bibliographic Resources, from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, United States Department of Energy