Ta-Pei Cheng

Ta-Pei Cheng (Chinese: 鄭大培; born 1941) is a theoretical physicist and professor emeritus of physics at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Cheng’s research has included work on low-energy theorem relating the nucleon sigma term to the pion-nucleon scattering amplitude at the Cheng–Dashen point, and studies with Estia Eichten and Ling-Fong Li of asymptotic freedom and spontaneous symmetry breaking in gauge theories. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1982. His textbooks have been used in university courses in particle physics, quantum field theory, relativity, and cosmology; Gauge Theory of Elementary Particle Physics, co-authored with Ling-Fong Li, has been described by Oxford University Press as a well-established textbook in the field.

Early life and education Cheng was born in Shanghai in 1941 and spent part of his childhood in Qingdao. In 1956, during the Hundred Flowers period, he moved to Hong Kong to join his parents. Academic career Cheng was a postdoctoral member of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey. He also made extended research visits to the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, CERN, Fermilab, and the Aspen Center for Physics. From 2002 to 2008, Cheng was an honorary professor of physics at the University of Hong Kong. Beginning in 2009, he also served as an adjunct professor of physics at Portland State University.

Research Cheng’s research has focused on theoretical particle physics, including gauge theories and the quark structure of the nucleon. With Roger Dashen, he derived a relation connecting the low-energy pion–nucleon scattering amplitude at what became known as the Cheng–Dashen point to the nucleon sigma term. Cheng, Eichten, and Li found that, in the classes of gauge theories they examined, asymptotic freedom could not coexist with complete breaking of the gauge symmetry through the Higgs mechanism. The work was cited by Georgi and Glashow in their 1974 paper proposing SU(5) grand unification. Cheng and Li also worked on neutrino masses and related lepton-flavor nonconservation effects. As of August 2026, Google Scholar listed more than 10,000 citations to Cheng's publications. In 1982, Cheng was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. and Oxford University Press later described it as a well-established textbook in the field. and was reviewed in journals including the American Journal of Physics

Personal life He is married to Leslie Su Cheng and has three children.