Gender: male

Date of birth: 1922 65438+ 10/.

Native place: Hefei, Anhui

Education: postdoctoral researcher

Yang Zhenning was born in Hefei, Anhui on 1 June+10/October1(later, the date of birth was mistakenly written on the passport of going abroad as June 65438+September 22, 0922). He was born less than one year old, and his father Yang Wuzhi went abroad to study in the United States at public expense. At the age of 4, his mother began to teach him to recognize Chinese characters. 1 For many years, she taught him 3000 words. At the age of 60, Yang Zhenning recalled: "Now the words I know add up, and it is estimated that they will not exceed twice that number."

1928 When Yang Zhenning was 6 years old, his father came back from America. As soon as he saw him, he asked him if he had studied. He said that he had read it. What books have you read? Read Long Wen Whip Shadow. Tell him to recite it, and he will recite it all. Yang Zhenning recalled: "My father then asked me what this book meant, and I couldn't explain it at all. However, I remember that he gave me a pen that I have never seen before. "

When Yang Zhenning was in primary school, he did well in math and Chinese. He was admitted to the National The National SouthWest Associated University before graduating from high school. He was only 16 years old at 1938. 1942, 20-year-old Yang Zhenning graduated from university and immediately entered the research institute in The National SouthWest Associated University. Two years later, he got a master's degree with honors and was allowed to study in the United States at public expense. He went to the United States to study at the University of Chicago on 1945, and received his doctorate on 1948.

From 65438 to 0949, Yang Zhenning entered the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies as a postdoctoral fellow and began to cooperate with Li Zhengdao to study particle physics. During this period, he encountered many puzzling phenomena and unsolvable problems. They boldly doubted and carefully verified, and finally overturned the law of parity conservation, so that the confusion disappeared and the problem was solved. Yang Zhenning said in his Nobel Prize speech in 1957: "At that time, physicists found that their situation was like a person groping for a way out in a dark room. He knew that in a certain direction, there must be a door to get him out of trouble. But in which direction? " It turns out that the direction is parity conservation law, which does not apply to weak interaction. "

Yang Zhenning has made extensive contributions to physics, including particle physics, statistical mechanics and condensed matter physics. In addition to discovering the non-conservation of parity with Li Zhengdao, Yang Zhenning first proposed the "Young-Mills Gauge Field" with R.L. Mills, and established the "Young-Backus Equation" with American physicist and Nobel Prize winner R.Baxter. E.Segre, praising Yang Zhenning as "one of the three theoretical physicists who can be called all-rounders in the world for decades".

Yang Zhenning remembers the legacy of his father Yang Wuzhi: "Remember the kindness of the country when you are alive." He was the first American scientist to visit China in the summer of 197 1. He said: "As a Chinese-American scientist, I have the responsibility to help these two countries that are closely related to me build a bridge of understanding and friendship. I also feel that I should make some contributions to the development of science and technology in China. "

Yang Zhenning said this and did the same. For more than 20 years, he frequently shuttled between China and the United States and made many fruitful academic contacts. He wrote two such poems: "The clouds, the water, the wind and the thunder are changing rapidly, and natural selection is competing."