Shang Fa Yang
Taiwanese-American plant scientist (1932–2007)
Shang Fa Yang (Chinese: 楊祥發; pinyin: Yáng Xiángfā; November 10, 1932 – February 12, 2007) was a Taiwanese-American biochemist and botanist specializing in agricultural chemistry. He was a professor at the University of California, Davis. He was awarded the 1991 Wolf Prize in Agriculture and was elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences the year before.
Early life and education
Yang was born in 1932 in Taiwan, the youngest of twelve children of Chian-Zuai Yang, a sugarcane producer turned miller. Shang Fa Yang never learned his exact date of birth, but surmised it fell between late October and early November, and chose to celebrate his birthday on November 10. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in agricultural chemistry from National Taiwan University in 1956 and 1958, respectively. He subsequently moved to the United States and completed his doctoral degree in plant biochemistry from Utah State University in 1962.
Career
After completing his PhD, he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Davis, New York Medical School, and University of California, San Diego. He joined the University of California, Davis faculty in 1966.
Yang was known for his research that unlocked the key to prolonging freshness in fruits and flowers.
“Shang Fa Yang” enters the record as taiwanese-American plant scientist (1932–2007). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Shang, Yang and Taiwanese-American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 25, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3959116. VIAF identifies the subject as 29703735. The Library of Congress control number is n98055452. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1932, 2007, 1991 and 1956.
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This entry incorporates text from “Shang Fa Yang” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.