Legacy of theoretical elegance

56:40first got off the boat he he got a hotel room in Time Square which back then is not a you know now it's like all touristy but like back then >> it's sketches. >> Yeah. Not [laughter] not the same thing. >> It's not the great thing. Pre-gentrification. >> Yeah. So like his first his first uh his first exposure to America was Time Square in in the 1940s. Anyway, so so he gets there. Um, he goes to Colombia in search of Fermy because Fermy was officially on the roster of Colombia. He goes there, he asks the secretary about Fermy. The secretaries don't know who Fermy is >> because I don't even know. Fermy was Fermy was at the time he was never in

57:20Colombia because he was doing classified research for the government for the Manhattan Project. But I mean, come on. You don't know who Fermy is? Anyways, all right, fine. Um, he goes to Colombia. He can't find Fermy. He goes to Princeton. He actually meets Eugene Wigner. >> Mhm. >> There. Wignner tells him that he's going to sbatical at Oakidge, which is another classified thing. And because Yong Chung Ning is Chinese, you know, you can't >> you're not going to you're not going to get a job with >> Wner. You're not going to get read into the special access program. >> Yeah. It's like you just got here, you know. [laughter] It's like >> especially at that time. >> Yeah. At that time. Yeah. It's like we don't know. It's tough. It's tough. >> Yeah. It's tough. So then So then he goes talks to Wheeler. Wheeler, someone

58:02that we talked about, another Princeton great. Um, Wheeler gave him some problems. Those problems didn't really interest him. He tried as much. Um, and then he got word that Fermy was actually um, permanently going to Chicago, University of Chicago from Colombia. And so he applies there. He sends a telegram to Colombia to Chicago. Um, gets in immediately because his grades were so good in the Chinese undergrad and masters. So he gets in, he goes to the Chicago school. um under the guidance of these giants, Enrico Fermy, Edward Teller, um the villain of the Oen movie movie. Um he actually got his PhD under Edward Teller.

58:42>> Okay. Oh, very interesting. >> Edward Teller was his PhD adviser. And that's actually a really funny story because um he he wanted to at first get his PhD under Enrico Fermy, >> but Fermy had gone to Argon National Lab again for classified research. Yes. >> Right. So he's like, I can't really take you. I'm really sorry. Um, he goes to Teller. Teller gave gives him problems. These are problems that aren't really interesting to Young, right? So, Young's trying, couldn't solve them. He's like, "Okay, maybe I'll try my hand at experimental physics, fails miserably, like [laughter] every theoretical physicist does who tries to go into the lab, >> just has no idea what he's doing." Yeah. In his interview, he's actually talking

59:23about how the graduate students would like literally laugh at him, but they were like also best friends with him because he would solve their theoretical problems, >> right? But but he was just hopeless in the lab. In the lab, >> right? So he's there for three and a half years just doing nonsense, breaking And um he publishes during that time he publishes independently some papers about the symmetry groups and group theory and how that can be applied to um nuclear fishision and nuclear decay. >> Okay, this catches the eye of Teller again. Mhm. >> And Teller comes up to him and he's like, "So, at this point, he's kind of, you know, famous in the University of Chicago because there's not a lot of Chinese students, not not like nowadays

1:00:05when there's so many Chinese students in American universities, so many international students in American universities. Back then there's few and far bit far in between. Um, and he's so