Yang Yunfeng

Dr. Yang earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1996, and a Ph.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA, in 2003. He is currently a Professor at the Institute of Environment and Ecology, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University. As a microbial ecologist, his focus area is environmental genomics, particularly on (1) pollution reduction and carbon sequestration by soil and aquatic microorganisms, (2) the health risks of indoor pathogens, and (3) microbial genomic mining. His scientific approach is interdisciplinary, integrating field observations, laboratory experiments, modeling, and theory. To date, he has published over 220 papers in scholarly journals such as PNAS, Nature Climate Change, and Nature Communications, and held two US patents. His Google Scholar citations exceed 20,000, with an H-index of 67. He has received more than $3 million in research grants as a Principal Investigator. He has also received several prestigious awards, such as the Outstanding Youth Award (the highest honor of the National Natural Science Foundation of China for mid-career scientists) and the Outstanding Young Scholar Award (the highest honor of Tsinghua University for mid-career faculty). Since 2020, he has been named in the Globally Highly Cited Researchers™ list from Clarivate, the world's top 2% of scientists, the top 100 scientists in microbiology and immunology in China, and the top 50 scientists in ecology and evolution in China.

1996/08–2003/01 Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Major in Microbiology, Ph.D.

2000/01–2002/05 The City University of New York, Major in Computer Sciences, M.S.   

1991/09–1996/07 University of Science & Technology of China, Major in Biology, B.S.

2023/10–present   Professor, Institute of Environment and Ecology, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, China

2010/09–2023/10   Professor, School of Environment; Adjunct Professor, Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, China

2006/03–2010/09   Staff Scientist, Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S.A.

2003/02–2006/03   Postdoc, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S.A.

The Chinese Society of Microbial Ecology, Vice President

Center for Grassland Microbiome, Lanzhou University, Deputy Director

Soil Ecology Letters, Founding Associate Editor

mLife, Founding Associate Editor

Yunfeng Yang’s research keywords are functional microorganisms, with a focus on their roles in pollution reduction and carbon sequestration. By optimizing experimental and data analysis tools such as metagenomics, molecular ecological networks, gene function identification, and biogeochemical models, he has investigated the pivotal roles of functional microorganisms in organic matter degradation and the nitrogen cycle in both soil and water. He found that microbial communities in the soils of the Tibetan Plateau and Inner Mongolia Plateau exhibited high functional diversity, with selective pressure being the main driver of these communities. These microorganisms were also highly sensitive to environmental changes. To explain how marine microorganisms respond to nutrient availability, he proposed the hunger games hypothesis. His research demonstrated that the abundance of microbial genes associated with carbon degradation, methanogenesis, nitrogen fixation, nitrification, and denitrification correlated with functional process rates, suggesting that gene abundance might serve as a proxy for process rates. By incorporating functional gene parameters into biogeochemical models, he improved the modeling accuracy and reduced uncertainties in depicting carbon dynamics and forecasting soil carbon stock under future climate scenarios. Since the onset of COVID-19, his research scope has expanded to encompass the detection and mitigation of indoor pathogens and harmful viruses, especially those linked to female inflammation and cancer. Through large-scale exploration of microbial genomic resources, various enzymatic products for indoor environmental cleaning, soil carbon sequestration, and pollution reduction have been developed, offering innovative solutions for future environmental management.

[1] Microbial-based carbon emission assessment and regulation of Hainan tropical rainforest, Funded by Hainan National Park Research Institute, 2023/04-2025/12, PI

[2] Effects and Mechanisms of Nutrient Addition on Global Grassland Soil Microbial Diversity and Function, Key International (Regional) Collaborative Research Project Funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China, 2021/10-2026/09, PI

[3] New indicator system and attenuation efficiency assessment method for natural attenuation of pollutants based on monitoring, Funded by the National Ministry of Science and Technology. 2020/01-2023/12, PI

[4] Soil Microbiology, Distinguished Young Scholars Funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China, 2019/01-2023/12, PI

[5] Characteristics of Plateau Soil Microbial Diversity, Second Comprehensive Scientific Investigation Project on the Tibetan Plateau Funded by Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, 2019/01-2023/12, PI

[1] X Tao, Z Yang, J Feng, S Jian, Y Yang*, C Bates, G Wan, X Guo, D Ning, M Kempher, X Liu, Y Ouyang, S Han, L Wu, Y Zeng, J Kuang, Y Zhang, X Zhou, Z Shi, W Qin, J Wang, M Firestone, J Tiedje, and J Zhou* (2024), Climate warming accelerates positive soil priming in a temperate grassland ecosystem, Nature Communications 15 (1): 1178

[2] T Dai, D Wen*, C Bates, L Wu, X Guo, S Liu, Y Su, J Lei, J Zhou, and Y Yang* (2022), Nutrient supply controls the linkage between species abundance and ecological interactions in marine bacterial communities, Nature Communications 13: 175

[3] J Lei, X Guo, Y Zeng, J Zhou, Q Gao*, and Y Yang* (2021), Temporal changes of global soil respiration since 1987, Nature Communications 12: 403

[4] Y Yang* (2021), Emerging patterns of microbial functional traits, Trends in Microbiology 29 (10): 874-882

[5] Q Gao, G Wang, K Xue, Y Yang*, J Xie, H Yu, S Bai, F Liu, Z He, D Ning, S Hobbie, P Reich, and J Zhou* (2020), Stimulation of soil respiration by elevated CO2 is enhanced under nitrogen limitation in a decade-long grassland study, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 117 (52): 33317-33324

[6] X Guo, J Feng, Z Shi, X Zhou, M Yuan, X Tao, L Hale, T Yuan, J Wang, Y Qin, A Zhou, Y Fu, L Wu, Z He, JD Van Nostrand, D Ning, X Liu, Y Luo, J Tiedje, Y Yang*, and J Zhou* (2018), Climate warming leads to divergent succession of grassland microbial communities, Nature Climate Change 8: 813-818

[7] L Wu, Y Yang*, S Wang, H Yue, Q Lin, Y Hu, Z He, JD Van Nostrand, L Hale, X Li, JA Gilbert, and J Zhou (2017), Alpine soil carbon is vulnerable to rapid microbial decomposition under climate cooling, The ISME Journal 11: 2102-2111

[8] H Yue, M Wang, S Wang, JA Gilbert, X Sun, L Wu, Q Lin, Y Hu, X Li, Z He, J Zhou, and Y Yang* (2015), The microbe-mediated mechanisms affecting topsoil carbon stock in Tibetan grasslands, The ISME Journal 9: 2012-2020

[9] M Zhao, K Xue, F Wang, S Liu, S Bai, B Sun, J Zhou, and Y Yang* (2014), Microbial mediation of biogeochemical cycles revealed by simulation of global changes with soil transplant and cropping, The ISME Journal 8: 2045-2055

[10] Y Yang*, Y Gao, S Wang, D Xu, H Yu, L Wu, Q Lin, Y Hu, X Li, Z He, Y Deng, and J Zhou (2014), The microbial gene diversity along an elevation gradient of the Tibetan grassland, The ISME Journal 8 (2): 430-440

Y Yang (2014), Methods for Targeted Mutagenesis in Biomass-degrading Bacteria, U.S. Patent 8735160

Y Yang and Y Li (2014), Transformation of Gram-Positive Bacteria by Sonoporation, U.S. Patent 8669085

The 16^th Science & Technology Award of the Chinese Soil Society, The First Prize (2021)

The Outstanding Young Scholar Award, Tsinghua University (2014)