Yang Yongbin, an expert in structural engineering and mechanics, native of Jinmen, Fujian, identified as a foreign academician of Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2007 and the academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2009.

Yang graduated from the Department of Civil Engineering of Taiwan University in 1976, and obtained the master’s degree of Taiwan University in 1980. In the summer of 1984, he acquired the doctor’s degree at Cornell University of the United States, after which he returned to the Department of Civil Engineering of Taiwan University to work. Till the summer of 2014, Yang had worked for Taiwan University for 30 years, and then he retired.

Currently, Yang serves as the honorary dean of the School of Civil Engineering of Chongqing University, a honorary professor of Taiwan University, chairman of IEET Verification Committee, editor in chief of International Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamic (IJSSD), an SCI journal, editorial board member of several SCI journals, and the vice chairman of two international academician organizations, namely, Asian-Pacific Association of Computational Mechanics (APACM) and East Asia-Pacific Conference on Structural Engineering and Construction (EASEC).

Yang served as the president of National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, dean of the School of Engineering of Taiwan University, head of the Department of Civil Engineering, convener of the civil engineering discipline of National Science Council and the president of the following organizations, namely, Institute of Engineering Education, Taiwan, China Civil Engineering Society, the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and the Structural Engineering Society. He had won 5 prizes in recognition of outstanding research achievements of National Science Council, and the junior prize for teaching of the Ministry of Education, and the title of top 10 outstanding youths. He was selected as the contract research fellow of National Science Council for 2 times and had given lectures for the Outstanding Talent Foundation. Yang also acted as the fellow of the following organizations: American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), International Chinese Association for Computational Mechanics (IACM), Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanic, Structural Engineering Society and Chinese Institute of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering.

Yang became one of the key persons of IEET in 2002, and established the engineering education certification system of Taiwan with IEET as the platform. Since then, he has been engaged in improvement of engineering teaching quality. Through his efforts, IEET became a member of Washington Accord and Sydney Accord in 2007 and 2014 respectively. Thus, the engineering teaching was brought in line with international practices. Now IEET certification system is still growing rapidly.

Yang’s research areas include structural nonlinear theory, vehicle/bridge mutual restriction kinetic theory, and train waves propagation analysis method, and he has published an English monograph respectively in each of those areas.

1. Theory and Analysis of Nonlinear Framed Structures (1994, Prentice-Hall, co-author: Guo Shirong)

2. Vehicle-Bridge Interaction Dynamics—with Applications to High-Speed Railways (2004, World Scientific (2004, World Scientific, co-authors: Yao Zhongda and Wu Yansheng)

3. Wave Propagation for Train-Induced Vibrations - A Finite/Infinite Element Approach (2009, World Scientific (2009, World Scientific, co-author: Hong Xiaohui)

Yang acted as a visiting professor or visited the following universities: University of Singapore, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Dalian University of Technology, University of Queensland and University of New South Wales.