BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Nobel Prize-winning physicist Chen Ning Yang, one of the most influential scientists in modern physics, died in Beijing on Saturday. He was 103.
The prestigious Tsinghua University, where he studied and served as a professor, said in a statement that Yang died of an illness, without sharing further details.
“Professor Yang is one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century, having made revolutionary contributions to the development of modern physics," the statement said, praising his contribution to China’s scientific and educational developments.
Yang won the Nobel Prize in 1957 with Tsung-Dao Lee for their investigation of the so-called parity laws that led to “important discoveries regarding the elementary particles,” according to the Nobel Prize website. They were the first Chinese-born Nobel Prize winners in physics.
In his speech at the Nobel Banquet at the time, he said he was as proud of his Chinese heritage as he was devoted to modern science, a part of human civilization of Western origin.
“I am heavy with an awareness of the fact that I am in more than one sense a product of both the Chinese and Western cultures, in harmony and in conflict,” according to his speech, shared on the Nobel Prize website.
Yang, also known as Frank or Franklin, was also famous for his Yang–Mills theory developed with American physicist Robert Mills.
Born in 1922, Yang was brought up surrounded by the Tsinghua campus, where his father was a math professor, the website said. After finishing his undergraduate degree, he obtained his master’s degree from Tsinghua.
He enrolled in the University of Chicago in the United States to pursue a doctorate in 1946 and was strongly influenced by Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi, who had won the same Nobel Prize in 1938, the website said. He later became a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
In 1986, he became a distinguished Professor-at-large at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, to which he generously donated many of his awards and articles, including the Nobel Prize. Starting from 1999, he served as a professor at Tsinghua.
According to a 2017 report by China's official news agency Xinhua, Yang obtained American citizenship. He said at the time it was a painful decision, one that his father had not forgiven him for. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2015, saying it was a beautiful country that gave him good opportunities in studying science, the report said.
The Nobel Prize website said Yang had three children.
Chinese Nobel Prize-winning physicist Chen Ning Yang delivers a speech at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang province, on April 14, 2014. (Chinatopix via AP)
Chinese Nobel Prize-winning physicist Chen Ning Yang delivers a speech at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang province, on April 14, 2014. (Chinatopix via AP)
Chinese Nobel Prize-winning physicist Chen Ning Yang delivers a speech at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang province, on April 14, 2014. (Chinatopix via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media that the U.S. Coast Guard had boarded the Motor Tanker Veronica early Thursday. She said the ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”
U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”
Noem posted a brief video that appeared to show part of the ship’s capture. The black-and-white footage showed helicopters hovering over the deck of a merchant vessel while armed troops dropped down on the deck by rope.
The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.
The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, it was partially filled with crude.
The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.
According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Galileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for moving cargoes of illicit Russian oil.
As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”
However, other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear that they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.
Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.
This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro's capture.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)
