Chen-Ning Yang

CHEN-NING YANG. Chinese theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to statistical mechanics, integrable systems, gauge theory and both particle physics and condensed matter physics. He and (Tsung-Dao Lee) received the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on parity non-conservation of weak interaction. The two proposed that one of the basic quantum-mechanics laws, the conservation of parity, is violated in the so-called weak nuclear reactions, those nuclear processes that result in the emission of beta or alpha particles. He is also well known for his collaboration with Robert Mills in developing non-abelian gauge theory, widely known as the Yang–Mills theory