Born in
Pingyang County,
Wenzhou,
Zhejiang Province, he graduated from Wenzhou Middle School in 1942. He graduated from
Zhejiang University in 1946 and his main academic advisor was
Su Buqing. From 1946 to 1948 he was an assistant in the Department of Mathematics, Zhejiang University. From 1949 to 1950 he was a lecturer at
National Taiwan University. During this time he was an assistant and later a researcher in the Institute of Mathematics, Academia Sinica. Yang went to the United States and obtained his
Ph.D. from
Tulane University in 1952. From 1952 to 1954, he taught at the
University of Illinois, and from 1954 to 1956, he was a visiting member at the
Institute for Advanced Study, where he began a lifelong collaboration with
Deane Montgomery. In 1956 he became an assistant professor at the
University of Pennsylvania. He was promoted to associate professor two years later and professor in 1961. He served as chair of the department from 1978 through 1983. He retired and became professor emeritus in 1991. Yang was elected in 1968 to the
Academia Sinica. From 1992 to 2004 he was an advisor for the Institute of Mathematics, Academia Sinica. ==Research==