Yang Zhenning

Yang Zhenning (October 1, 1922 - October 18, 2025), who used the English names Frank and Franklin, was a native of Hefei, Anhui, and his ancestral home was Fengyang, Anhui. He was a Chinese theoretical physicist who made outstanding contributions in the fields of particle physics, statistical physics, condensed matter physics and other fields. Yang Zhenning is the eldest son of mathematician Yang Wuzhi. He was admitted to the Southwest Associated University in 1937 to study for undergraduate and master's degrees, and then entered the University of Chicago in 1945 as a publicly funded student studying in the United States to study for a doctoral degree. After graduating in 1948, he briefly served as a faculty member at the University of Chicago, and then worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton from 1949 to 1966. In 1954, he jointly proposed the Yang-Mills theory with Robert Mills, laying the foundation for gauge field theory. In 1956, he and Li Zhengdao jointly proposed the parity non-conservation theory. After the theory was experimentally confirmed by Wu Jianxiong's group, it was quickly recognized by the academic community. Yang and Li also won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957, becoming the earliest Chinese Nobel Prize winners. In 1964, Chen Ning Yang became a U.S. citizen and served as a professor at Stony Brook University two years later until 1999. Since then, he has served as a professor at Tsinghua University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and became a citizen of the People's Republic of China in 2015. Yang Zhenning passed away in Beijing on October 18, 2025, at the age of 103.