Chen Ning Yang, Nobel prize-winning physicist, Dies at 103

Saturday 18 October 2025 - 10:00

By: Sahili Aya

Chen Ning Yang, Nobel prize-winning physicist, Dies at 103

Beijing, October 18, 2025 — Chinese-born physicist Chen Ning Yang, a 1957 Nobel laureate in physics and one of the greatest theoretical minds of the 20th century, has died at the age of 103, Chinese state television CCTV announced Saturday. The scientist passed away in Beijing “after an illness,” according to official reports.

Born in Hefei, in China’s eastern Anhui province, Yang moved to the United States in the 1940s to pursue graduate studies. He went on to teach at leading American universities and later became a U.S. citizen, a nationality he renounced in 2015 after returning to China.

A Discovery That Changed Modern Physics

Yang shared the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics with his colleague Tsung-Dao Lee for their groundbreaking demonstration that the law of parity conservation—once believed to be a fundamental symmetry of nature—is violated in certain nuclear interactions.

This revolutionary finding overturned long-held assumptions in particle physics and opened the way to a deeper understanding of the weak nuclear force.

Pioneer of the Yang-Mills Theory

In the early 1950s, Chen Ning Yang, working with American physicist Robert Mills, developed what became known as the Yang–Mills theory, a cornerstone of modern physics describing how certain elementary particles exchange forces.

This theory would later form the mathematical foundation of the Standard Model, the framework that underpins much of today’s particle physics, influencing generations of scientists.

A Lifetime Devoted to Science and Education

In his later years, Yang taught at Tsinghua University in Beijing, where he played a key role in mentoring young physicists and fostering international academic exchange.

The Chinese state news agency Xinhua praised his “outstanding contributions to scientific education, talent cultivation, and global academic collaboration.”

Chen Ning Yang’s intellectual legacy continues to shape modern theoretical physics and stands as a testament to the universal pursuit of knowledge.