Yang Chen Ning -The Most Influential Physicist of Our Time

Many physicists recall October 1957 as a time of excitement and legend. In that year, at the age of 35, Yang won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Yang and Lee thereby became the first Chinese laureates. The significance of the award lay not only in the academic achievement, but also in the boost it provided to the self-belief of a nation. Before that, the scientific talent of the Chinese had been questioned.

His groundbreaking contribution to theoretical physics made Yang a world-renowned physicist. Freeman Dyson, one of the founders of quantum electrodynamics and an internationally respected physicist, believed Yang was the preeminent architect of 20th-century physics after Albert Einstein and Paul A. M. Dirac. At Yang's 70th birthday party, Samuel C. C. Ting, another Nobel laureate, said, "When we think of the major milestones in physics during the 20th century, three things come to mind... the first one is relativity (Albert Einstein), the second is quantum mechanics (Paul A. M. Dirac), and the third is gauge theory (Yang Chen Ning)."