RIP Chen Ning Yang (1922-2025)

[robphy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_Chen-Ning

( photo from http://insti.physics.sunysb.edu/~yang/ )



https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/science/chen-ning-yang-dead.html

Chen Ning Yang, Nobel-Winning Physicist, Is Dead at 103
He and a colleague, Tsung-Dao Lee, created a sensation in 1956 by proposing that one of the four forces of nature might violate a law of physics.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxrzzk02plo

Chinese Nobel laureate and physicist Chen Ning Yang dies aged 103

Chen Ning Yang, Nobel laureate and one of the world's most influential physicists, has died at the age of 103, according to Chinese state media.
... Yang and fellow theoretical physicist, Lee Tsung-Dao, were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957 for their work in parity laws, which led to important discoveries regarding elementary particles - the building blocks of matter.

https://www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk/en/press/mourning-professor-yang-chen-ning/

Professor Yang Chen-ning, the first Chinese Nobel Laureate, Distinguished Professor-at-Large and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), passed away on 18 October 2025, at the age of 103. The CUHK community is profoundly saddened and conveys its deepest condolences to his family.

https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/...nobel_and_breakthrough_prizes/_profiles/yangc
https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/physics/people/_profiles/yangc
http://insti.physics.sunysb.edu/~yang/

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(thanks to @pines-demon for alerting me)


I had made a post back in 2022 that celebrated him almost being 100.
www.physicsforums.com/threads/chen-ning-yang-is-almost-100-years-old.1045788/

• 

  Thread 'Chen Ning Yang is (almost) 100 years old'

  Sep 22, 2022

  Chen-Ning Yang is (on official documents) 100 years old today [His real birthday is Oct 1, according to
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_Chen-Ning , which says
  " His birth date was erroneously recorded as September 22, 1922 in his 1945 passport.
  He has since used this incorrect date on all subsequent official documents."]
  
  With Tsung-Dao Lee (his classmate at U. Chicago where they were graduate students*),
  Chen-Ning Yang won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics
  "for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the...

  • robphy
  • Years
  • Replies: 2
  • Forum: General Discussion

  • 
  • 

• Here's a 2006 interview
  C. N. Yang: Stony Brook Masters Series
  (&t=26m52s Gauge Theory (Yang-Mills) ; 32m58 Fiber Bundles)
  https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.96.191 Yang & Mills 1954
  https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.104.254 Lee & Yang 1956
  https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.12.3845 TT Wu & CN Yang 1975 (mentioned in the video)

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Chen Ning Yang - AIP Physics History Network
https://www.trailblazers.psd.uchicago.edu/tsung-dao-lee-chen-ning-yang

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vuJL4QwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Scientific and Related Works of Chen Ning Yang (list from www.ias.tsinghua.edu.cn)


https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=105799
https://academictree.org/physics/tree.php?pid=66188

https://www.worldscientific.com/author/Yang,+Chen+Ning (some available as Free Access)
Selected Papers (1945–1980) of Chen Ning Yang
Selected Papers of Chen Ning Yang II

https://cnyangarchive.cuhk.edu.hk/About.aspx



https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/05/12/a-question-of-parity

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(more updates in a later post below)

 

[pines-demon]

Amazing age and amazing number of contributions. I wonder if we will ever know why he was not in terms with Lee.

 

[robphy]

Amazing age and amazing number of contributions. I wonder if we will ever know why he was not in terms with Lee.

Possibly helpful:

• Jeremy Bernstein - Lee and Yang: the break-up (53/86)
  Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People
  
  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/05/12/a-question-of-parity
  
  
• Biography details discord between two top scientists
  https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2002/11/17/0000179882
  

  "Winning the Nobel Prize does not mean a person's personality is perfect," Chiang Tsai-chien (江才健), biographer of Symmetry and Beauty -- Yang Chen-ning (楊振寧), told the Taipei Times yesterday.
  
  Chiang was commenting on a falling out between the first two Chinese Nobel laureates, Yang and Lee Tsung-dao (李政道) who won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for their contribution to knowledge about parity laws.
  
  ...
  
  "Neither Yang nor Lee denied that an article that appeared in the New Yorker magazine on May 12, 1962, was one of the major reasons for their breakup," cited the author.
  
  The article, "A Question of Parity," was written by physicist Jeremy Bernstein. After the article's publication, Yang and Lee had a long talk on April 18, 1962.
  
  According to the biography, both men were concerned about how their names appeared in the article.
  
  Yang felt that he was responsible for the lion's share of the work that netted the two men the Nobel prize, but the article suggested that Lee was the primary researcher.
  
  "Yang didn't deny that he cared very much about how Bernstein handled the names in the article."
  
  Yang's meeting with Lee on April 18 was a very emotional scene," Chiang wrote.
  
  During Yang's visit, he said a number of books and articles have speculated about his breakup with Lee. "They are all fiction," he said.
  
  "But Chiang's book is true. He interviewed my family and friends," Yang said.

 

[robphy]

(1980) AIP Oral History Interviews (OHI) Yang, Chen Ning on 1980 November 1.
https://repository.aip.org/yang-chen-ning-1980-november-1

(2001) Interview of C.N.Yang for the C.N.Yang Archive (by Kerson Huang)
THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
https://chaosbook.org/library/CNYang2000.pdf

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Here are more videos of CN Yang:

• (1964) https://cnyangarchive.cuhk.edu.hk/LectureVideo.aspx
  

  "What is Modern High Energy Physics"
  A remake of Professor Chen—Ning Yang’s Public lecture in Hong Kong in 1964
  
  This is a remake of Prof. Chen-Ning Yang’s 1964 lecture using modern graphics, based on the original voice recording
  (provided by Radio Television Hong Kong}, as a celebration of Prof. Yang’s 100‘" Birthday in 2021.

• (1991) 1991 Beatty Memorial Lecture - Yang Chen-Ning
  "Symmetry and Physics" by Yang Chen Ning, 1991 Beatty Memorial Lecture. McGill U. (video posted in 2019)
  
  
  
• (2008) James Simons and C.N. Yang: Stony Brook Masters Series
  
  
  
• (2015) Chen Ning Yang- Remembrance of Early Days of Particle Physics(Day1)
  
  
  
• (2015) Yang Zhenning, the first Chinese to win the Nobel Prize, a life of achievements and controversies - Interview with Yang Lan
  《杨澜访谈录》 第一位荣获诺贝尔奖的华人杨振宁，成就与争议并存的一生 |#杨澜 #杨振宁 #翁帆 #杨澜访谈录 |杨澜工作室Yang Lan Studio
  

• (2004) College Physics - Chen Ning Yang - at Tsinghua (playlist of 30 lectures) - most parts are in English
  
  
  https://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/info/1245/10640.htm
  

  ...Stay Loyal to Where I Came from – For the Next Generation of Scientists
  
  After returning to Tsinghua, Yang immediately threw himself into a compressed and busy work schedule, maintaining his vigorous attitude towards scientific research and teaching. In the fall semester of 2004, the 82-year-old Yang still lectured in General Physics to four freshman classes. He had two classes and one office hour session per week, prepared exam questions for the mid- term and final exams, and was present in the examination room. His role was exemplary for the students.
  
  According to students who attended Yang’s classes at that time, the classroom was always fully occupied with hundreds, or even close to a thousand students for each lecture. Those who were lucky enough would get a seat, while others huddled in the hallways or on the windowsills of the classroom. Those who could not squeeze into the classroom also gathered around the back door or the windows of the classroom to catch a glimpse of Yang lecturing.

  
  ( I think Yang is using Halliday and Resnick. (The playlist has 26 and 27 in the wrong order.)
  I'll try to get a list of topics generated... because I don't have time to watch (a few minutes into) 30 videos. I asked ChatGPT to watch each video and give an appropriate title.
  I have to verify some of its results.
  )

 

[pines-demon]

Possibly helpful:

• Jeremy Bernstein - Lee and Yang: the break-up (53/86)
  Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People
  
  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/05/12/a-question-of-parity
  
  
• Biography details discord between two top scientists
  https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2002/11/17/0000179882

Yes I did a two parter in the anecdotes of physics thread see
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/interesting-anecdotes-in-the-history-of-physics.1059261/