Chen Ning Yang was born in the city of Hofei, in Anhwei province, China, on September 22, 1922, to Ke Chuan Yang and the former Meng Hwa Loh. When Yang finished high school, he entered the National Southwest Associated University, where he majored in physics and earned his B.S. degree in 1942. He then continued his studies at Tsinghua University, where his father was a professor of mathematics, and earned his M.S. in 1944. He then taught high school for one year before deciding to begin work on a Ph.D. in physics. Because doctoral programs in physics were not then available in China, Yang decided to come to the United States, where he particularly wanted to study with physicist Enrico Fermi. Yang traveled to New York City (by way of India, the Suez Canal, and Europe) under the impression that Fermi was still at Columbia, where he had come...