International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, IEAS

Academician

Ya-Qin ZHANG

Profile:

Elected Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences in 2011, Professor Ya-Qin Zhang is a Chinese-American scientist and technology executive whose research and professional work have focused on digital video, image and video compression and transmission, mobile and cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the translation of research into technological applications. Born in January 1966 in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, he entered the Special Class for the Gifted Young at the University of Science and Technology of China in 1978, receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electronic engineering in 1983 and 1985, respectively. He earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from George Washington University in 1989. After research positions at GTE Laboratories and the Sarnoff Multimedia Laboratory in Princeton, he returned to China in 1999 to help establish Microsoft Research China, which became Microsoft Research Asia in 2001. He subsequently served as President of Microsoft Research Asia, Corporate Senior Vice President of Microsoft, Chairman of the Microsoft China R&D Group, and Corporate Vice President responsible for the company’s global mobility business. From 2014 to 2019 he served as President of Baidu, where he led the Apollo autonomous driving programme. Since 2019 he has been Endowed Chair Professor of Intelligent Science at Tsinghua University and Founding Dean of the Institute for AI Industry Research (AIR). He is a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Foreign Member of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and a Fellow of IEEE and the US National Academy of Inventors. His honours include the IEEE Industry Pioneer Award, the Asian American Engineer of the Year Award, and the Chinese Government Friendship Award.

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Professor Zhang’s research has centred on digital video technologies, multimedia systems, and artificial intelligence, with particular emphasis on converting fundamental research into standards and practical technologies. His work on image and video compression and transmission has included rate control for streaming video, scalable video coding, error-resilient transmission over wireless networks, and cross-layer quality-of-service architectures. These technologies have contributed to international standards and applications in digital television, Internet video, mobile multimedia, and image databases. At Microsoft Research Asia, he helped establish an interdisciplinary research organisation bringing together research in computer science and related fields and played a significant role in the training of researchers and technology professionals. At Baidu, he led the Apollo autonomous driving programme and promoted collaboration between industry and academia in areas including vehicle–road coordination. At Tsinghua University’s AIR, his work has focused on the development and application of artificial intelligence in intelligent transportation, the Internet of Things, healthcare, and other fields. He has published more than 500 academic papers and 11 monographs and holds more than 60 US patents. He has received multiple IEEE best-paper awards and has been recognised among highly cited researchers in computer science. He has also participated in international initiatives on artificial intelligence and future mobility and served on the boards or advisory bodies of universities and technology organisations. Through sustained research, institution building, and collaboration between academia and industry, Professor Zhang has contributed to the development of digital multimedia and artificial intelligence and to the cultivation of researchers and technology professionals in these fields.