BEIJING, October 18, 2025. Chen Ning Yang, a Nobel Prize winning physicist whose ideas changed modern science has died in Beijing at the age of 103.
Early Life
Chen Ning Yang was born on October 1 1922 in Hefei China. His father taught mathematics at Tsinghua University. Yang grew up surrounded by books and teachers.
He studied physics at the National Southwestern Associated University and earned a master’s degree from Tsinghua University. In 1946, he moved to the United States to study at the University of Chicago. He completed his PhD there under physicist Edward Teller learning from legends such as Enrico Fermi.
Scientific Achievements
In 1956. Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee suggested that a basic law of nature called parity might not always hold true. Their theory was soon confirmed in experiments. This discovery changed how scientists understood the weak nuclear force.
For this work Yang and Lee shared the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics. They were among the first scientists of Chinese origin to win the award.
Two years earlier Yang and Robert Mills had introduced the Yang Mills theory. This idea became a cornerstone of the Standard Model of particle physics. which explains how fundamental forces and particles interact.
Academic Career
Yang worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton New Jersey starting in 1949. In 1965 he joined Stony Brook University in New York where he helped create the university’s C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics.
Later in life Yang returned to China to teach at Tsinghua University. He spent many years mentoring young scientists and supporting research in physics.
Legacy
Chen Ning Yang received many honors for his discoveries. His work continues to guide scientists studying the smallest building blocks of the universe.
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