YANG Jian, China

Westlake University

Jian Yang is the Zhen-Xing Endowed Professor of Statistical Genetics and a New Cornerstone Investigator at the School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, China. He received his PhD in 2008 from Zhejiang University, China, before undertaking postdoctoral research at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Australia (2008–2011). He moved to The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia, as a Research Fellow in 2012 and was reappointed as a Senior Research Fellow and Group Leader in January 2014. He was promoted to Associate Professor in December 2014, and then to Professor in January 2017. He joined Westlake University in 2020. His primary research focuses on developing advanced statistical and computational methods to solve fundamental problems in human genetics. By integrating massive-scale GWAS with transcriptomic, spatial, and multi-omics data, his work aims to translate genetic associations into biological mechanisms and clinical insights. He was the 2012 recipient of the Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize in recognition of his contribution to solving the ‘missing heritability’ paradox. He was awarded the Australian Academy of Science Ruth Stephens Gani Medal for distinguished research in human genetics (2015), the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science – Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year (2017), and was selected for the New Cornerstone Investigator Program (2025). He has published over 240 papers, which have received >126,000 citations (Google Scholar, Mar 2026).

Lecture：Genetic decoding of complex traits: from genetic origins to cellular roots