Physicist Chen-Ning Yang passes away in Beijing due to illness

Mr. Chen-Ning Yang, a world-renowned physicist, Nobel Prize laureate in Physics, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, professor at Tsinghua University, and honorary dean of the Institute for Advanced Study at Tsinghua University, passed away in Beijing on October 18, 2025, at the age of 103.

In 1956, Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee jointly published a paper proposing the idea that parity can be violated in weak interactions and proposed a possible experimental test. This revolutionary concept was soon confirmed by experiments by Chien-Shiung Wu and others. Yang and Lee were awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics "for their profound exploration of the law of parity non-conservation and the many important discoveries in the field of elementary particles that resulted from it," becoming the first Chinese to win a Nobel Prize.

In 2015, Yang renounced his American citizenship and subsequently transitioned from a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In May 2021, Yang Zhenning donated his collection of more than 2,000 books, manuscripts, video materials and artworks to Tsinghua University, and established the "Yang Zhenning Information Room" in the school library.