Bulletin Number Two 1986

Professor C.N. Yang Appo in ted Distinguished Professor-at-Large Professor Chen Ning Yang, the renowned Nobel Laureate in Physics, has accepted an appointment as Distinguished Professor-at-Large at the Univer sity. Bom in 1922, Professor Yang was educated at National Southwest Associated University at Kun ming during the Second World War. Having won a Boxer Indemnity Fellowship, he sailed for the United States in 1945 and obtained his PhD degree in Physics at the University o f Chicago in 1948. He then spent seventeen years working on funda mental problems in theoretical physics at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies as Pro fessor. In 1954, he and R.L. Mills published the results o f their pioneering work on gauge fields, which after three decades has now come to be recognized as the cornerstone for understanding the structure and interaction o f elementary particles. In 1956, together w ith Professor T.D. Lee, he pointed out the possibility o f parity nonconservation in weak decays, which was soon confirmed by Professor C.S. Wu and her colleagues in an experi ment on the beta decay o f cobalt-60. For this work he and Professor Lee were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1957. In 1966 Professor Yang moved to the State Univer sity o f New York at Stony Brook to take up the newly established Einstein Chair of Theoretical Physics and also the Directorship o f its Institute o f Theoretical Physics, and he has stayed there ever since. Although Professor Yang has worked in the United States for many years, he has always retained a deep feeling and concern for China. He first visited Hong Kong in 1965 ， and gave a memorable public lecture to a packed audience at the City Hall. He returned to Mainland China in 1971, as soon as there appeared to be a thaw in Sino-American relations, and met Premier Chou En-lai on that occasion. Subsequently he went back many times and, in addition to giving academic lectures, became a highly respected national policy adviser, especially on scientific and technological development. Professor Yang visited this University in 1982 and 1983 for a total o f four months, during which time he offered a graduate course on special topics in theoretical physics; he accepted the title of Honorary Professor o f Physics from the University later during the same visit. In several subsequent visits to the University, he took part in various academic activities and made wide-ranging contacts, through which he was able to give much help to the development o f science in this area. His scholarship, wisdom and sincerity have left deep impression on all those who came into contact with him. In order to render it possible for Professor Yang to make even greater contributions to the University and Hong Kong through regular visits, the University offered Professor Yang a specially created chair as Distinguished Professor-at-Large. Professor Yang has accepted the appointment, and came to jo in the University in this new capacity at the end o f April. As Distinguished Professor-at-Large, which carries with it University-wide responsibilities, Professor Yang w ill stay at the University between three to five months each year for the purposes o f teaching and research, as well as o f providing leadership for general academic advancement. Indeed with his stature and learning, Professor Yang is expected to make a major impact not only on the University but on the Hong Kong com munity as well. NEWS 3