1954, and Mills proposed Yang-Mills? Although I knew it was a beautiful theory, I didn't realize its importance at that time, let alone understand the geometric meaning of gauge field. Yang Zhenning is a physicist, not a mathematician. He summed up basic theories from physical phenomena, and the structure of these basic theories needs to be expressed by mathematics. In the process of pursuing the beauty of physical theory, he is rooted in physical reality. But he has superb mathematical ability and can appreciate the beauty of mathematics.
Yang Zhenning focused on the "cause" of "things" and designed the basic theoretical structure of physics. However, he deeply realized that experimental phenomena are the foundation of physics, paid great attention to new experimental discoveries, had fruitful interaction with experimental physicists, and kept interested in various fields of physics, including some small problems that seemed to reflect the spirit of physics, from which he extracted wonderful physics, but he was not interested in some fields that studied "big" problems but were too speculative. /kloc-after the 1970s, new experimental discoveries in condensed matter physics emerged one after another, and the progress of high-energy physics depended on the development of accelerators, so he paid special attention to condensed matter physics and accelerator physics and encouraged young people to enter these fields [2, 6, 7].
Many ingredients of Yang Zhenning's style and taste come from "seeds" buried many years ago [13, 14]. His love for symmetry is not unrelated to his natural temperament and childhood experience, but also closely related to his undergraduate study of molecular spectral symmetry under the guidance of Wu Dayou and his father's study of group theory. The research of statistical mechanics originated from the guidance of Wang Zhuxi when he was a master. The mathematical ability and appreciation of mathematical beauty shown in many jobs are inseparable from his exposure to mathematics under the influence of his father when he was young [7, 12- 14]. By Fermi? Yang Zhenning keeps interested in many fields.
It is often difficult to separate a scientist's style in scientific research from his personality as a person. From Yang Zhenning, we can see the blending of Chinese and Western cultures, positive attitude towards social progress, the combination of genius and ordinary people, the combination of diligence and wisdom, the combination of sincerity and reality, and so on. All these have something in common with his academic style.