Dr. Yang is the Board member of China Stroke Association (CSA); Vice chairman of the Society of Chinese cerebral blood flow and metabolism, CSA; Vice chairman of the translational Neuroscience Committee, Chinese Society of Translational Research Hospital; a Board member of Synchrotron Radiation Committee, the Chinese Society of Physics. Dr. Yang is the associate editor of Stroke and Vascular Neurology, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, Aging and Disease; Editor board members of Stroke, CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics, Neural Regeneration Research, Neuroimmunology and Neuroinflammation, Chinese Journal of Cerebrovascular Diseases, Stroke magazine, and Chinese modern nerve disease, etc.

The major achievements of Dr. Yang include: 1) developed middle cerebral artery occlusion and reperfusion model in mice; 2) developed intra-cerebral hemorrhage model in rat; 3) pioneered cerebral vascular malformation model in mice and studied the mechanism of vascular development and lesion; 4) creatively applied gene therapy technology to treat cerebral injury induced by ischemic stroke; 5) creatively took advantage of different growth factors and stem cells in intervention treatment for cerebral ischemic animals; 6) creatively used synchrotron radiation angiography and unique microvascular imaging techniques to study the occurrence and development of cerebrovascular disease in vivo in real time, developed focal angiogenesis and focal microvessel dysplasia model in rodent brain for cerebrovascular study. Dr. Yang is also working on exploring advanced treatment for stroke by taking advantages of neuroimaging, neural rehabilitation, biomaterials, and medical device. 

Dr. Yang awarded NIH grants in USA and many funding from China including the 973 project, Ministry of science and technology of China, Chinese Natural Science Fund (CNSF), Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Has long been engaged in neurobiology, neurology and neurosurgery, especially cerebral vascular disease of translational research, Dr. Yang has written 12 books including “Operational Neurosurgery”, “Animal Experimental Stroke Neurosurgery”, “Translational Research in Stroke” etc. He has published more than 300 SCI papers, H-index 77, the total impact factor (IF) is more than 1200. Cited references have reached more than 19000 times. He keeps one of the highest cited scholars in the field of medicine in China from this rank system established.