Chen-Ning Yang, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who played a central role in shaping Stony Brook University’s scientific reputation, died on October 18 at the age of 103. Yang was instrumental in establishing the university’s Institute for Theoretical Physics, which now bears his name, and contributed to Stony Brook’s emergence as a globally recognized institution in the sciences.
Yang joined Stony Brook in 1966, having been recruited by founding president John Toll from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Toll aimed to make Stony Brook a leading public university in the sciences, and Yang’s appointment helped attract other distinguished faculty and students.
“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,” said Stony Brook University President Andrea Goldsmith. “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.”
Reflecting on his decision to join Stony Brook, Yang 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 research transformed particle physics. In 1957, he and Tsung-Dao Lee were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work on the weak interaction, which describes radioactive decay. The Yang-Mills Theory that he co-developed influenced the development of modern physics and geometry, with its equations now fundamental to understanding particle interactions.
“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,” said Richard Gelfond ’76, Chair of the Stony Brook Foundation Board of Trustees.
Since its founding nearly 60 years ago with Yang as director, the C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP) has conducted leading research and grown significantly. It currently has 12 faculty members, 30 graduate students, and seven postdoctoral fellows. The institute has received major funding from organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, NASA, the Simons Foundation, and the Heising-Simons Foundation.
Among YITP’s faculty achievements is Peter Van Nieuwenhuizen’s work on supergravity, which earned him the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2019. George Sterman now leads YITP and continues its focus on quantum field theory. Other notable faculty include Alexander B. Zamolodchikov—recipient of the 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics—Leonardo Rastelli, Robert Shrock, and Martin Rocek.
Sterman described Yang’s influence: “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.”
Yang’s collaboration with mathematician James Simons at Stony Brook brought together mathematics and physics in new ways. Their shared work on fiber bundles advanced understanding of geometry’s role in theoretical physics. Simons’ later philanthropy at Stony Brook—including support for YITP and founding of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics—was inspired by his partnership with Yang.
Yang also helped build ties between Stony Brook and China. As China’s first Nobel Laureate and a key figure in opening U.S.-China academic relations in the 1970s, he attracted many Chinese students and scholars to Stony Brook. The university now maintains partnerships with institutions such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Nanjing University, University of Science and Technology of China, and Xi’an Jiaotong University.
Stony Brook’s Chinese alumni and friends have supported the university in Yang’s honor. Wei Deng, founder of Bright Oceans Corporation, established an endowed chair in Yang’s name. The C.N. Yang-Deng Wei Endowed Chair in Physics and Astronomy was key to recruiting Professor Zamolodchikov to YITP.
At Zamolodchikov’s investiture ceremony in Beijing in 2017, he stated: “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 in connection with Yang’s legacy reads: “When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people.”
