Chen Ning Yang, Nobel laureate and one of the world’s most influential physicists, has died at the age of 103, according to Chinese state media.<\/p>\n
An obituary released by CCTV cited illness as the cause of death.<\/p>\n
Yang and fellow theoretical physicist, Lee Tsung-Dao, were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957 for their work in parity laws, which led to important discoveries regarding elementary particles – the building blocks of matter. <\/p>\n
Yang was also a professor at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University and an honorary dean of the Institute for Advanced Study at the institution.<\/p>\n
Born in 1922 in China’s eastern Anhui province, he was the oldest of five children and raised on the campus of Tsinghua University where his father was a professor of mathematics.<\/p>\n
As a teenager, Yang told his parents: “One day, I want to win the Nobel Prize.”<\/p>\n
He achieved that dream at the age of 35, when his work with Lee studying the law of parity earned them the honour in 1957.<\/p>\n
The Nobel committee praised “their penetrating investigation… which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles”.<\/p>\n
Yang received his science degree in 1942 from National Southwest Associated University in Kunming, and later completed a master’s degree at Tsinghua University.<\/p>\n