Yang Yingchang, physicist. He was born in 1934 in Beijing. He has been a faculty member at Peking University since he graduated from the Physics Department of Peking University in 1958. He was elected academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1997. Currentely, he is a professor at the School of Physics, Peking University. His major research interest is in the field of magnetism. He studies the correlation between macroscopic magnetic properties and microscopic structures of magnetic matter. To explore the potential of Chinas abundant resources of rare earth, special emphasis has been put on the study of magnetism of 4f electrons related to the rare earth metals and 3d electrons of transition metals. Along this vein, novel magnetic materials have been investigated and invented.