Chen-Ning Yang, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist and founder of Stony Brook University’s Institute for Theoretical Physics, died on October 18 at the age of 103. Yang’s career at Stony Brook began in 1966 when he joined as one of the university’s early faculty members. His arrival was seen as a pivotal moment for the university, helping to attract top faculty and students and establishing strong scholarly ties between Stony Brook and China.
Stony Brook University President Andrea Goldsmith said, “The world has lost one of the most influential physicists of the modern era, and Stony Brook has lost a revered friend, visionary and former faculty leader. C.N. Yang’s profound intellect, generous spirit and endless curiosity formed the foundation of the University’s current excellence in theoretical physics and the sciences more generally. His legacy will continue through his transformational impact on the field of physics and through the many colleagues and students influenced by his teaching, scholarship and mentorship.”
Yang was recruited by Stony Brook’s founding president, John Toll, from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He became the Albert Einstein Professor of Physics and the founding director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics, which now bears his name. Toll’s vision was to build a leading public university in the sciences, and Yang played a central role in that effort.
Reflecting on his recruitment to Stony Brook, Yang once said, “It was a difficult decision. I had asked myself many times whether the decision was correct, and my answer has always been, ‘It is correct.’ I think that my coming to Stony Brook opened a new chapter of my life. I think it’s a rewarding chapter.”
Yang’s work significantly advanced particle physics. In 1957, he and Tsung-Dao Lee received the Nobel Prize for their research on the weak interaction. The Yang-Mills Theory, developed by Yang, has been foundational to developments in physics and modern geometry. Today, Yang-Mills-Higgs equations remain important tools for describing particle interactions.
Richard Gelfond, Chair of the Stony Brook Foundation Board of Trustees, commented, “C.N. Yang was the piece of the puzzle that set Stony Brook on its trajectory. His recruitment, less than a decade after he won the Nobel Prize, brought our campus onto the global stage and let the world know this University was committed to becoming a world-class institution.”
The C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP), founded by Yang nearly 60 years ago, continues to be a center for research and academic achievement. It has attracted major funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, NASA, and private foundations. YITP currently supports 12 faculty members, 30 graduate students, and seven postdoctoral fellows.
Among its achievements is Peter Van Nieuwenhuizen’s work on supergravity, which won him the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2019. After Yang’s directorship ended in 1999, Van Nieuwenhuizen led the institute until 2002. George Sterman is now the third director, recognized for his contributions to quantum chromodynamics.
Sterman, who was hired by Yang and considers him a mentor, said, “His leadership and profound intellectual curiosity set the tone and pace for the Institute. He did not dictate the direction of our investigations, but his personal example — his unmatched drive for discovery — established a benchmark that all of us continue to strive for today.”
James Simons, recruited by President Toll to chair Stony Brook’s Mathematics Department in 1968, developed a close working relationship with Yang. Their collaboration bridged mathematics and physics and influenced Simons’ later philanthropy at Stony Brook, including support for YITP and founding the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics.
Yang’s influence extended internationally, particularly in fostering academic ties between China and the United States. As China’s first Nobel Laureate and a prominent scientist visiting China in the early 1970s, Yang helped establish partnerships with leading Chinese universities and inspired philanthropic support from Chinese alumni and business leaders. One example is Wei Deng, who established an endowed chair at Stony Brook in Yang’s honor.
At a ceremony in Beijing marking Professor Alexander B. Zamolodchikov’s appointment to the C.N. Yang-Deng Wei Endowed Chair in Physics and Astronomy, Zamolodchikov said, “I take it as an extraordinary honor to accept the position associated with the name of C.N. Yang, whose status in theoretical physics is nothing short of legendary.”
A Chinese proverb cited at the end of the announcement states: “When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people.”
