1957, Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao won the Nobel Prize in physics for their theory of parity non-conservation in weak interaction. They are the first China people to win the Nobel Prize. The latter two became enemies because of their ranking. 1962 Because of an article in The New Yorker, the two officially broke up. Yang Guangnuo, the seven-year-old son of Yang Zhenning, once said, "I hope someone will win the Nobel Prize." 1989, he wrote a letter to Wu Dayou, the late president of Academia Sinica, and reported the cooperation between them to the teacher. Wu Dayou replied, "The whole thing is a very unfortunate thing. I don't think the truth can be covered up forever, so I hope that everyone will stop arguing in front of the world and let the truth slowly emerge. "
From 65438 to 0977, he and Liang and others founded the All-American Chinese Association in Boston to promote Sino-US relations.
Yang Zhenning won the rumford Prize with 1980 and the National Science Medal with 1986.
Yang Zhenning now lives in Tsinghua University. My married wife is Du's daughter, who died of illness on June 5438+ 10, 2003.
From the end of 2004 to the beginning of 2005, 82-year-old Yang Zhenning and 28-year-old Weng Fan (divorced), a master student in translation department of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, got married again.
honour
1957 and Li Zhengdao won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He has also won the National Science Medal and many honorary degrees, and is an honorary professor in many famous universities at home and abroad.
[Edit this paragraph] Personal experience
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 50, Yang Zhenning recalled:' Now the words I know add up, and it is estimated that they will not exceed twice that number.'
At that time, when he came back from a trip abroad, the FBI and the CIA often visited him. When CIA officials went to meet for the first time, Yang asked his secretary to record their conversation to avoid misunderstanding. Yang Zhenning continued to keep close contact with China. He said, "The FBI and CIA have not bothered me recently."
Yang Zhenning is most concerned with science rather than politics. He told his own experience: how a young student from a backward city in a remote area of China was lucky enough to participate in one of the most important ideological revolutions in the 20th century. This revolution is an attempt to understand the infinite diversity of nature in a unified way, from the explosion of chaotic planets to the trembling of electrons around the nucleus.
Yang Zhenning became famous for the first time. That year, he and Li Zhengdao published an article that overthrew a central message of physics-parity conservation? Elementary particles behave exactly like their mirror images. Because of this work, they won the Nobel Prize of 1957.
The relationship between Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao became more and more tense. They broke up on 1962. Yang Zhenning refused to talk about what made their relationship tense. He said: "This is a very disappointing thing in my life. I want to say that this is a tragedy. " The two of them have not spoken for decades.
Yang Zhenning lived in a society more like the Middle Ages than modern times in his early years. He benefited from a lucky family environment and contacts with colleagues and scholars. These paved the way for him to move towards a broader world of knowledge and culture. In return, he constantly strives to establish a first-class research center in Asia.
Yang Zhenning grew up in Hefei, a walled city in central China. At that time, the streets of this city were unpaved, and the gates were so narrow that the first cars came in the 1930s. Most residents are illiterate. Due to occlusion, Yang Zhenning didn't see bananas for the first time until he was 6 years old.
1937 During the Japanese invasion, Yang Zhenning's grandfather was forced to leave Beiping to teach in The National SouthWest Associated University. Yang Zhenning's father continued his good fortune. Decades later, the young Yang Zhenning also entered this university and was taught by some of the most outstanding scientists in China at that time. Some of them later went to America, including Chen Shengshen. Chen Shengshen has retired from the University of California, Berkeley, and many people think that he is the most important differential geometer alive today.
1945 Yang Zhenning's father won a boxer indemnity scholarship and went to the United States. Princeton University accepted Yang Zhenning's father, but he wanted to learn from the talented Italian physicist Fermi, so he went to the University of Chicago and wrote his doctoral thesis under the guidance of Taylor, who was later called the father of the hydrogen bomb. After the paper is written, there are only four pages. Taylor persuaded Yang Zhenning that, in any case, a four-page doctoral thesis was always too short, and he was asked to lengthen it. He did and added it to page 23. After making outstanding achievements in physics, he turned to the Far East. Yang Zhenning will donate his manuscripts and letters to the Chinese University of Hong Kong instead of new york State University in Xi Shi. He is a visiting professor at China University. Yang Zhenning has not ruled out the possibility of moving back to China, because he and his wife Du Zhili, who have been married for 50 years, will get better care when they return home. ? Recently, Zhili had three tumor operations in the hospital of State University at Stony Brook, and the results were good. Yang Zhenning still feels at home in Long Island. He doesn't want to leave his three grown-up children. All three of them got degrees in science. Yang Zhenning said: "They are Americans. They have little contact with China culture. " Guangnuo, the eldest son, graduated from the Computer Science Department of the University of Michigan and is now a financial consultant in Westchester County, New York. The second son, Guangyu, is a Ph.D. in chemistry and lives in new york. He analyzes the chemical industry for J.P.Marg Financial Company. My daughter Youli is a doctor in Livingston County, Montana.
Yang Zhenning became an American citizen on 1964. He said: "We had a good time in America. We have many friends here. We are very comfortable in both societies. "
At the end of the academic seminar held by Xi Shi for his retirement, Yang Zhenning talked about a "great and far-reaching discovery" he made at the age of 60: "Life is limited". He read a poem by Li Shangyin, a poet in China in the 9th century: to see the sun, for all his glory, buried by the coming night.
At the beginning of the 20th century, another writer was also a friend of Yang Zhenning's father? Zhu Ziqing, change these two lines to: If you can see the sun, though it is brilliant, why are you depressed at dusk? After a lifetime of mysterious thinking about nature, Yang Zhenning believes that this change more accurately describes his thoughts in his later years.
[Edit this paragraph] Yang Zhenning studied and lived in Kunming.
The eighth candidate for the second year of high school.
1938 In the summer, in view of a large number of middle school students moving to the rear of the Anti-Japanese War, the Ministry of Education of the National Government announced a measure: all students can apply for universities with the same academic qualifications without diplomas. With this news, Yang Wuzhi, the father of The National SouthWest Associated University Mathematics Department, moved to Yang Zhenning. With his father's encouragement and support, he signed up for the unified examination with his second year of high school education. The admission ticket issued to Yang Zhenning by the Kunming Admissions Committee Office of the National Colleges and Universities is "Tongkunzi No.0008", the test center is "the first test center" and the seat is "No.8".
After Yang Zhenning's family arrived in Kunming in the spring of 1938, they first lived atNo.1Wenhua Lane between The National SouthWest Associated University and Yunnan University. This alley was originally a remote and desolate place with nettles at the northern foot of Kunming, also known as nettle alley. With the staff of the General Assembly moving in, in addition to the Yang family, there are physics professors and Huo Bingquan living atNo. 19 and No.43 respectively. Liu Yunpu, a professor of chemistry, lives at No.4 1, and other schools, such as Fei Xiaotong, a professor of sociology at Yunnan University, also live in this lane. The alley suddenly became lively and became the main channel for teachers and students from schools such as the General Assembly to enter and leave the city, so it was renamed Cultural Lane.
On the day of the college exam, Yang Zhenning got up before dawn, took a few quick bites and walked into the examination room happily. At this time, only a few students came to the examination room. Yang Zhenning, dressed in neat student clothes, happily received the admission ticket and posted the photos he took when passing through Hankou. The admission ticket reads: "Candidate Tongkunzi No.0008 has passed the examination and is allowed to take the first-year undergraduate examination in Kunming." Because he usually studies hard and studies hard, a few days later, he was admitted to the university with excellent results.
Only Yang Zhenning, a sophomore, was admitted to the National Southwest Associated University, the highest institution at that time, which really made people feel happy and surprised, but this in turn showed that Yang Wuzhi had a good family education. In this regard, Yang Zhenning delivered a speech entitled "China Culture and Science" in Nanjing on April 6, 2000, saying: "I found that I was lucky in many ways. First of all, my father is a university professor, and I grew up in Tsinghua campus with a strong academic atmosphere. On the other hand, since I was a child, I think math is easy for me ... "
Many talented people get together.
Yang Zhenning in middle school was smart and witty, and he read mathematics very well. One day, he said to his father seriously, "Dad! I want to win the Nobel Prize when I grow up! " Yang Wuzhi, who sincerely hopes his son will succeed, knows the weight of the Nobel Prize. He encouraged his son to say, "study hard!" " "Unexpectedly, this joke is widely circulated in The National SouthWest Associated University. People joked, "Yang Wuzhi's son is good at math. Why not learn physics instead of math from his father's business?"? "Oh, because there is no Nobel Prize in Mathematics!"
Yang Zhenning only studied chemistry but not physics in high school, so he took the chemistry department when he applied for the General Assembly. /kloc-after entering school at the end of October, he found himself more interested in physics and transferred to the physics department. Yang Zhenning, 16 years old, is the youngest among the freshmen enrolled in 1938. At this time, in The National SouthWest Associated University, student dormitories are thatched houses with earth walls or iron houses with earth walls, and classrooms are houses with iron roofs. It will tinkle when it rains. The floor of the classroom is mud, and it won't take long to become a pit. There is no glass in the window. When it is windy, you must hold the paper down with something, or it will be blown away. The teacher is a "ham chair". The board looks like ham, but only one book can be placed on the right side of the chair. However, teachers and students enjoy it, and humorously call brown rice mixed with millet, barnyard grass and sand "eight treasures rice". Shoes with holes in the front and back are "down-to-earth" and "unprecedented".
National Southwest Associated University adopts the system of combining "compulsory courses" with "elective courses" and taking "credit system" as the main body in the academic system and curriculum setting. Four years of undergraduate study, you must complete 130- 140 credits (different departments), and you can't graduate until you pass the exam (no make-up exams are allowed in any subject), so many students can't graduate after the conference. Of the more than 8,000 people educated in the Congress, only 2,522 are formal graduates (excluding those who dropped out of school to join the army). By the time of graduation in July, 1942, only nine people had finished their studies in the Physics Department of the General Assembly.
After Yang Zhenning graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree, he was admitted to the Physics Department of the National Tsinghua University Institute of Science for postgraduate study. During her postgraduate studies, Yang Zhenning lived in the postgraduate dormitory of North College of Union University. This dormitory is a two-story building in disrepair. His roommates are Ling Ning, Jin Qihua and Gu Zhenchao, and Huang Kun and Zhang Shoulian come to stay for a few days occasionally. These future elites of the Chinese nation get together, talk and discuss in a simple room and explore the mysteries of science together. However, in the Physics Department and Physics Department when Yang Zhenning was studying, although the professors tried their best to set up five laboratories, namely, general physics, electricity, optics, radio and modern physics, due to the lack of instruments and experiments, the research work had to be based on theory, and most of the teachers' research results were limited to theoretical discussion.
1July, 944, 10 Six graduate students from Tsinghua Research Institute graduated. At this time, Yang Zhenning, who obtained the Master of Science degree, was only 265,438+0 years old, the youngest among the six graduates.
Yang Zhenning's short six years at the congress had a great influence on his life. Yang Zhenning recalled in Forty Years of Reading Teaching: "When I was studying at the General Assembly, especially when I was in graduate school for the next two years, I gradually appreciated the research styles of some physicists." "National Southwest Associated University is one of the best universities in China. I received a good undergraduate education there and an equally good postgraduate education there. " "My love and hate for physics was mainly cultivated during the six years I spent in this university (1938-1944)."
Yangmen Zhangzi
After Yang Zhenning was admitted to the General Assembly, a family of seven only relied on their father to earn a salary to support their families, and their lives were very difficult. 1939 On September 28th, Japanese planes bombed Kunming for the first time. Later, at the end of 194 1, the teachers and students of the conference, like other Kunming people, had to run the alarm at both ends for three days, sometimes twice a day. 1940 On September 30th, Japanese planes bombed Kunming again. The house rented by the Yang family in the small corner city was hit by bullets and blown to the wall, and the poor family belongings were instantly reduced to ashes. Fortunately, the family members hid in the bomb shelter at this time and saved the day. But this kind of bombing, for Yang's life, is tantamount to adding insult to injury. A few days later, Yang Zhenning came back with a shovel and dug for a long time before he dug out some bent but still usable books from the ruins. If he gets the treasure, he will be ecstatic.
Later, in order to avoid the Japanese bombing, the whole family moved to Jiahui Courtyard in Longyuan Village, more than ten kilometers away from the northwest suburb of Kunming, and lived for three years. Jiahui courtyard is divided into front yard and backyard. The front yard is rented to the professor of the conference, and the backyard is occupied by Jiahui's own people. Wu, Yu and He live in a house built along the door on the left side of the compound. This house is a two-story building. Wu lives downstairs, upstairs and in the kitchen. There is a narrow corridor between Yang and Zhao's living room. There is a hole in the floor of the corridor, from which you can go downstairs by stairs.
In Long Yuan Village, Yang Zhenning left many unforgettable stories. As Yang's parents, he also made some attractive rules to encourage his younger brothers and sisters to study more: in one day, whoever studies well, listens to his mother and helps with housework, will be given a red dot without fighting or making trouble, and vice versa. On weekends, whoever has three red dots will be rewarded-he will take it to Kunming to see a movie by bike. Yang Zhenning returned to Longyuan Village from the UN General Assembly at the weekend. Professor Wu's children, Wu Tiesheng, Wu Zaisheng and Wu Xiangru's daughter Zhao, and Yu Zhihua and Yu Peihua, the daughters of Yu who live in the village, all like to gather in Yangjia to listen to the stories of Yang Zhenning's English versions of Treasure Island and The Last Moses Root. More interestingly, Yang Zhenning also collaborated with his playmates in Tsinghua, the son of Xiong Qinglai, president of Yunnan University, and drew cartoons. Yang Zhenning put a magnifying glass on the round mouth of the old biscuit barrel and a light bulb in the barrel, so that comic books can be drawn from the magnifying glass and moving characters can be formed on the wall. He also made local movies such as "Sitting at home, disaster falling from the sky" bombed by airplanes, which opened the eyes of children who rarely had the opportunity to watch movies.
The life of teachers and students in the conference is very difficult. In order to solve the difficulties in life, many people go out to work part-time. Yang Zhenning also has a bad job. It was the spring of 1945, and Yang Zhenning taught Chinese to some American officers and men in Kunming for three hours a week, earning hundreds of dollars to supplement his family, so as to fulfill the responsibility of his eldest son.
During his stay in Kunming, as the Yang family had a pair of "Yunnan Ping", whenever he was free, he played a few games of chess with his chess friends. Yang Zhenning and Yang Zhenping are surrounded by each other. It seems that they were born to learn to play Go.
Another notable feature of Yang Zhenning is that he loves singing. Whether walking on campus or doing homework at home, he always likes to sing China songs and English songs loudly. Among his favorite songs, his father taught him to sing. One of the songs is called "China Men", and the lyrics are: "China men, China men, hold up the sky with both hands. The Yangtze River, the eastern part of Asia and the Kunlun Mountains ... How many Chives have worked hard in ancient and modern times, and their blood is still red. " This is a song that Yang Wuzhi likes all his life, and it is also a song that Yang Zhenning likes very much. Although Yang Zhenning is not very good at singing, he likes singing. Therefore, at the conference, Yang Zhenning was a student who was a little "famous" for singing. Once, a friend of Yang Zhenning asked a classmate, "Do you know Yang Zhenning?" That classmate actually replied: "Yang Zhenning? Yang Zhenning? Oh, is it the one who sings badly? "
Because the salary increase of the teachers of the General Association can't keep up with the price increase in Kunming, the teaching staff generally can't make ends meet, and many people are in debt. 1August 942, Yang Wuzhi's salary was 470 yuan,1April 945, and the monthly salary was only 590 yuan, after deducting income tax of 22.30 yuan and stamp duty of 2.4 yuan, it was actually 565.30 yuan. Yang Wuzhi's salary, to support a family and five school children, is really stretched. In March, Yang Jia 194 1, who was in trouble, became the first rescue target for the air raid injury of the staff of the General Assembly and was rescued by 600 yuan. In June of the same year, the Yang family was included in the scope of food subsidy, and the subsidy standard was 16.8 yuan per month. At the end of the Anti-Japanese War, the Yang family was in a state of "no overnight meals", "the whole family was thin and everyone was healthy at last". In addition to the hard support of Yang Wuzhi, whose hair is gray, there is another important reason that Yang Zhenning has a thrifty mother who works day and night. It is such a hardworking woman who supported her family through the eight-year war of resistance with her "indomitable spirit". Master Gao tu
There are many famous teachers in The National SouthWest Associated University, and the teaching staff is very strong. At the United Nations General Assembly, Yang Zhenning was able to listen to lectures by famous teachers such as Zhu Ziqing, Wen Yiduo, Luo Changpei, Wang Li and Chen Daisun because Tsinghua University kept the tradition of taking Chinese as a compulsory course for first-year students.
1In August, 944, when Tsinghua University announced the list of students studying in the United States at public expense in the sixth exam, Yang Zhenning won the only student studying in the United States at public expense with an average score of 68.75438+0. According to the stipulation of the Examination Committee that "all students who are admitted should work in the original institution until later", Yang Zhenning's stay period is1autumn of 944 to1summer of 945. During this period, he taught in the middle school attached to the General Assembly while conducting scientific research.
1On June 6th, 944, in the sixth batch of overseas students sent by the General Assembly to study in the United States, Yang Zhenning, a physics major, planned to enter Princeton University to study nuclear physics under the guidance of Professor Zhao Zhongyao and Professor Wang Zhuxi. Yang Zhenning began to pay attention to "field theory" after listening to Professor Ma Shijun's class in graduate school, and he was also very interested in the thermodynamics of deformable objects. In the year attached to the middle school, he spent a lot of energy studying the problems he was interested in. During April and May of 1945, he confidently found an elegant way to discuss this issue. But it was later discovered that there was a great scientist named monaghan abroad who had done this work as early as 1937. The repetition caused by this information occlusion once annoyed him. But the efforts were not in vain. In his later years, he made great pioneering contributions in the field of field theory.
The days of waiting are particularly uncomfortable. At the beginning of 1945, Yang Zhenning and others learned that "there are graduate students and interns admitted from Britain and the United States, some have gone abroad, and some will leave soon", but the travel date is still undecided, and they can't help but worry. 12 In June, Zhang, Cao Jianyou, etc. 16 students jointly submitted a petition to the chairman on the issue of going abroad, asking the General Assembly to appoint a Commissioner to go through the formalities of going abroad, and asking for answers on issues such as ship position, expenses and clothing.
After many efforts, Yang Zhenning and others finally set out for India on August 1945, and then India took a troop ship to study in the United States. After more than half a century, Yang Zhenning published an article "Father and Me" in Wen Wei Po on March 1998. He still remembers the situation when he left Kunming on August 28, 1945. He wrote in the article: "In the morning, my father accompanied me from the northwest corner of Kunming to Tuodong Road in the southeast suburb to wait for the bus to Wujiaba Airport." "When I arrived at Tuodong Road, my father said something encouraging, and both of them were very calm. After saying goodbye, I got on the crowded bus. At first, I could see my father waving to me from the window. A few minutes later, he was pushed into the distance by the crowd ... After waiting for more than an hour, the bus never started. Suddenly an American next to me motioned me to look out of the window: suddenly I found my father still waiting there! He is thin, wearing a robe, and his hair on his forehead is gray. Seeing his anxious face, I endured tears all morning, and for a moment generate couldn't control himself. "
1956, Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao * * both published a paper "Query on the Conservation of Parity in Weak Interaction" in the American Physical Review, arguing that parity is not conserved at least in the field of weak interaction. At the end of the year, Wu Jianxiong and other scientists confirmed this theory through rigorous experiments. Yang Zhenning, 35, and Li Zhengdao, 3 1 year-old, were on the podium of the Nobel Prize. Before that, I wrote to thank Mr. Wu for guiding him into the field of symmetry principle and group theory, and said that many research works, including parity conservation, were directly or indirectly related to the ideas introduced to him by Mr. Wu 15 years ago. Yang Zhenning wrote in the letter: "This is what I have always wanted to tell you. Today is obviously the most appropriate moment." The great physicist of the 20th century also said that the foundation of all his achievements came from the National The National SouthWest Associated University. He has always regarded Kunming as his second hometown and has a deep attachment to this land.
Looking forward to the 2nd1century, Yang Zhenning thinks that China will become a world power in science and technology in the middle of 2nd1century. "I say this for four reasons. First, there are countless young people in China who are extremely smart and plastic, which is the first prerequisite for the development of science and technology. Second, China's traditional Confucianism not only attaches importance to education, but also to human relations and frugality, which is bound to make the above-mentioned talents promising. 3. In the past 100 years of development, China stepped out of the stagnant mode and was replaced by a passion for modern science. 4. The rapid economic development of China, Hongkong and Taiwan Province Province in recent years has provided a strong backing for the development of science and technology. "
Yang Zhenning said that the people of China successfully developed the atomic bomb more than ten years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and since then, they have trained and accumulated a large number of basic talents. "China people are of high quality. For example, students in Tsinghua University are no worse than those in Harvard University, but what we have to consider is how to turn high-quality students into high-quality talents. " Yang expressed his belief that with the development of economy and the improvement of scientific research conditions, following the scientists in China in this century, local scientists in China will surely reach the world leading level in important fields in the next century. "Scientists who are born and raised in China and have made achievements in the local area will win the Nobel Prize. From now on, 20 years is enough. " \
[Edit this paragraph] Yang Zhenning's scientific achievements
Yang Zhenning has made extensive contributions to theoretical physics, including elementary particles, statistical mechanics and condensed matter physics. He made many contributions to theoretical structure and phenomenological analysis. His works have a special style: independence and creativity, and far-reaching vision.
1. In particle physics, his most outstanding contribution is that in 1954, together with R.L. Mills * * * Yang -Mills field theory was put forward, which opened up a new research field of non-Abelian gauge fields and provided a theoretical basis for modern gauge fields (including the theory of electric weak unity, the theory of quantum chromodynamics, the theory of grand unity and the gauge of gravitational field).
2. Another outstanding contribution of Yang Zhenning in particle physics is that in 1956, he cooperated with Li Zhengdao to deeply study the puzzling mystery of θ-τ at that time, that is, the so-called K meson later had two different decay modes. One decays to even parity state and the other decays to odd parity state; If the parity of weak decay processes is conserved, then they must be two K mesons with different parity states. But in terms of mass and lifetime, they should be the same meson. -Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao realized through analysis that parity may not be conserved in weak interaction. They carefully examined all the past experiments and confirmed that these experiments did not prove parity conservation in weak interactions. On this basis, they further put forward several experimental methods to test parity non-conservation in weak interaction. The next year, this theory was predicted by Wu Jianxiong's experiment. Therefore, the work of Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao was quickly recognized by the academic circles and won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics. This is the first time that a scientific work won the Nobel Prize in the second year of publication.
In particle physics, Yang Zhenning's other contributions include Fermi-Yang model (1949), two-component neutrino theory with Li Zhengdao (195 7), and analysis of C (charge * * * yoke transformation) and T (time inversion transformation) with Li Zhengdao and R. O 'Hemei. CP (parity) non-conservation analysis (1964), integral form theory of gauge field (1974), relationship between gauge field and fiber bundle (1975), and high-energy collision theory (1975) with Zou Zude.
3. In statistical mechanics, Yang Zhenning's contributions include: spontaneous magnetization of two-dimensional Ising model (1952), phase transition theory with Li Zhengdao (1952), and strict solutions of several models with Yang Zhenping (1966 ~ 1985).
4. In condensed matter physics, Yang Zhenning's contributions include: the explanation of magnetic flux quantum man (196 1) cooperated with N. byers, and the concept of off-diagonal long program (1962).
Yang Zhenning visited People's Republic of China (PRC) in the summer of 197 1, and was the first famous American scholar to visit New China. After he returned to the United States, he did a lot of work to promote the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, promote mutual understanding between the two peoples, and promote the exchange of science and technology education between China and the United States. Yang Zhenning was appointed honorary professor of Peking University, Fudan University, University of Science and Technology of China and Sun Yat-sen University, and member of the Academic Committee of Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Yang Zhenning has published about 200 scientific papers and reports.
[Edit this paragraph] Yang Zhenning's anecdote
1. A master makes a master.
Yang Zhenning, a well-known name in contemporary China, is a name that Chinese people all over the world are proud of. Yang Zhenning's great achievements are inseparable from his good exploration and the guidance of famous teachers. As the saying goes, "a good teacher makes a good apprentice."
Yang Zhenning's father was his first "famous teacher". 1922 On September 22nd, Yang Zhenning was born in Hefei, Anhui Province. His father is teaching mathematics in a middle school in Anqing, a hundred miles away. Yang Wuzhi is a middle school teacher, knowledgeable and enterprising. When Yang Zhenning was less than one year old, Yang Wuzhi won the quota of studying abroad at public expense and went to the United States. Six years later, he received his doctorate and returned to China. He first taught at Xiamen University and was later hired as a professor of mathematics in Tsinghua University. Yang Zhenning's knowledge of group theory benefited from his father Yang Wuzhi.
2. Geely No.8 Registration Form
1938, during the national The National SouthWest Associated University entrance examination, Yang Zhenning came to the registration office early, received the registration form No.8, and was finally admitted to the National The National SouthWest Associated University with excellent results, thus embarking on the road of exploring science.
The National SouthWest Associated University Physics Department is full of stars and talented people: Wu, Zhou Peiyuan, Wang Zhuxi, etc. , a leading figure in contemporary Chinese physics, was teaching there at that time. 1942 completed the graduation thesis under the guidance of Professor Wu Dayou and obtained a bachelor's degree in physics. Two years later, Yang Zhenning studied under Professor Wang Zhuxi and got a master's degree in physics.
3. Three masters of physics whom I admire in my mind
1944, Yang Zhenning won a scholarship to study abroad. 1945, he came to the United States.
At that time, Yang Zhenning admired three physicists most: Einstein, who founded the theory of relativity, Dirac, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, and Fermi, who presided over the construction of the world's first atomic nuclear reactor. These three masters of physics are all Nobel Prize winners. They have a common feature, that is, they can grasp the essence of the problem at once in very complicated physical phenomena, and then express it with simple and wonderful mathematical methods. Influenced by these three masters, Yang Zhenning's future works also have such characteristics.
Walk into the "ivory tower"
Yang Zhenning wanted to follow Fermi after coming to America, so he came to the University of Chicago where Fermi taught. However, Fermi was involved in the development of the atomic bomb at that time. Because of confidentiality requirements, he was not allowed to have more contact with the outside world, so he introduced Yang Zhenning to Dr. Taylor (who later became the father of the American hydrogen bomb). From 65438 to 0948, under the guidance of Taylor, Yang Zhenning obtained his doctorate with excellent results. A year later, under the recommendation of Fermi and Taylor, Yang Zhenning came to the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies, known as the "ivory tower". The world-famous Einstein worked there. It is a place with a very active research atmosphere and fierce competition. There, Yang Zhenning cooperated with Li Zhengdao, Mills and others, and achieved two most important achievements in his life: cooperating with Li Zhengdao, he overthrew the "parity conservation law" that has been regarded as the golden rule of physics for decades, and proposed that parity is not conserved in weak interaction, so they won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics; He cooperated with Mills to put forward gauge field theory, which is one of the three field theories discovered by human beings so far. There are two other theories: Maxwell's electromagnetic field theory and Einstein's general relativity theory of gravitational field.
The third "physics generalist" in the 20th century.
Some people say that he is the third "all-rounder in physics" with comprehensive knowledge and brilliant talent after Einstein and Fermi in the 20th century. In any case, Yang Zhenning, a former "high apprentice", stood out under the training of many "famous teachers" and became a "famous teacher" himself.