On the 18th, Tsinghua University issued a statement expressing deep sorrow and mourning the late Mr. Yang Zhenning.

The full text is as follows:

Mr. Yang Zhenning, a world-renowned physicist, Nobel Laureate in Physics, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, professor at Tsinghua University, and honorary director of the Tsinghua Institute for Advanced Study, passed away on October 18, 2025, at 12:00 noon in Beijing due to illness, at the age of 103.

Mr. Yang Zhenning was born in Hefei, Anhui in 1922, and came to Tsinghua Garden with his parents in 1929. He entered the Southwest Associated University in 1938, joined the Graduate School of Tsinghua University in 1942, obtained a Master's degree in Science in 1944, and went to the United States for further studies as a government-funded student from Tsinghua University in 1945, studying at the University of Chicago. He obtained his doctorate in 1948 and then worked at the university. In 1949, he joined the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, became a permanent researcher in 1952, and a professor in 1955. In 1966, he became the Einstein Professor at Stony Brook, State University of New York, established the Institute for Theoretical Physics (now known as the Yang-Mills Institute for Theoretical Physics), and worked there until 1999. Since 1986, he has been invited to serve as the Wenbo Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Since 1997, he has served as the Honorary Director of the newly established Tsinghua Center for Advanced Studies (now known as the Institute for Advanced Study), and since 1999, he has been a professor at Tsinghua University.

Mr. Yang Zhenning is one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century, making outstanding contributions to the development of modern physics. His "Yang-Mills Gauge Field Theory" proposed with Mills laid the foundation for the later Standard Model of particle physics, and is considered one of the cornerstones of modern physics, comparable to Maxwell's equations and Einstein's general theory of relativity. He and Li Zhengdao proposed the revolutionary idea that parity is not conserved in weak interactions, and were awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics, becoming the first Chinese recipients of the Nobel Prize. He discovered the key equation for the one-dimensional quantum many-body problem, "Yang-Baxter Equation," opening up new directions in statistical physics and quantum group research in physics and mathematics. His numerous achievements in various fields of physics such as particle physics, field theory, statistical physics, and condensed matter physics have had a profound impact on the development of these fields. He is an foreign member of the academies of more than ten countries and regions, and has received honorary doctorates from over twenty prestigious universities at home and abroad. He has also been honored with numerous awards, including the National Medal of Science of the United States, the Franklin Medal, the Onsager Prize, the King Faisal International Award for Science, the China International Cooperation Award for Science and Technology, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of Qusi.

Throughout his life, Mr. Yang Zhenning has been deeply concerned about the country and made outstanding contributions to the scientific and educational cause of the motherland. In 1971, he made his first visit to the People's Republic of China, triggering a large wave of visits by overseas Chinese scholars, and was hailed as the first person who built a bridge for Sino-American academic exchanges. Later, he proposed to central leaders to restore and strengthen basic scientific research. He personally raised funds to establish the "Committee for Sino-American Educational Exchange," continuously supporting nearly a hundred Chinese scholars to study in the United States, and these scholars became the backbone of China's later scientific development. He has done a lot of work to promote domestic scientific exchanges and progress, offering valuable suggestions for the formulation of major scientific projects and science education policies in China, and played an important role. After returning to Tsinghua, he regarded the development of the Institute for Advanced Study as his new career, pouring a lot of effort into the development of basic disciplines such as physics at Tsinghua University and the school's talent cultivation, making great contributions, and having an important impact on the reform and development of higher education in China.

The life of Mr. Yang Zhenning is an immortal legend of exploring the unknown, and an eternal echo of patriotism. "Ning Zhuo Wu Qiao, Ning Pu Wu Hua" is his academic attitude, and also his attitude towards life. As he loved the lines of poetry, "The affairs of articles are timeless, the gains and losses are known only to the heart," Mr. Yang Zhenning's hundred-year life is a timeless chapter shining among the stars of humanity.

Mr. Yang Zhenning will live forever!

Source: Tsinghua University

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7562412838448071219/

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