Mr. Yang Zhenning’s Reflections on My Learning and Research Journey
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Tribute to Dr. Yang Zhenning
Dr. Yang Zhenning — world-renowned physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics laureate, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University Professor, and Honorary Dean of the Institute for Advanced Study at Tsinghua University — passed away due to illness in Beijing at 12:00 on October 18, 2025, at the age of 103.
Though he has departed, his academic spirit and scholarly wisdom will continue to guide and inspire generations to come.
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Insights from My Learning and Research Experience
In his landmark article "My Learning and Research Experience" (Physics, 2012, Issue 1), Dr. Yang distilled decades of scientific exploration into ten invaluable reflections:
- Balance intuition and flexibility
- Intuition is important, but be ready to absorb new ideas to correct it in time.
- Learn through discussion
- Peer discussions provide exceptional opportunities for genuine learning.
- Embrace frustration
- Feeling lost when seeking a thesis topic is common for doctoral students.
- Join growing fields early
- It is best to enter a new field in its early developmental stage.
- From interest to breakthrough
- Interest → Preparation → Breakthrough.
- Big problems need persistence
- Difficult physics problems often require multiple attempts to solve.
- Collaboration as research method
- Conversations with others can be highly productive for research.
- Question self-evident laws
- Never assume “obvious” laws are necessarily correct.
- Widen your scope
- Broadening a problem’s scope may uncover new promising directions.
- Avoid overcrowded fields
- Graduate students should avoid areas with too much competition and limited opportunity.
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Passing on Scholarly Wisdom
Here, we revisit Dr. Yang’s original words — not only to share his academic practices but also to bid farewell to a great master.
> Copyright Notice: Original content belongs to Physics; reproduced here solely for academic purposes.
Reference:
Yang Zhenning. My Learning and Research Experience [J]. Physics, 2012, 41(01): 1–8.
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Archival Images
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Farewell and Reflection
With this article, we salute and bid farewell to Dr. Yang Zhenning. His dedication to intellectual rigor and openness to new ideas remains a guiding light for researchers today.
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