Science, Medicine & Engineering
Landmark
Chen-Ning Yang
1922 – 2025
Physicist and Nobel laureate who overturned parity conservation
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the China Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
A theoretical physicist who shared the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for showing that parity may not be conserved in weak interactions, and whose work on gauge theory underpins modern particle physics.
Chen-Ning Yang studied in Kunming during the war and then in Chicago under Enrico Fermi. With Tsung-Dao Lee he proposed that the weak force distinguishes left from right, a prediction confirmed by Chien-Shiung Wu, and the two became the first Chinese Nobel laureates.
The Yang-Mills theory he developed with Robert Mills became a foundation of the Standard Model of particle physics. He returned to live in China in his later years.
The Yang-Mills theory he developed with Robert Mills became a foundation of the Standard Model of particle physics. He returned to live in China in his later years.
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