He received his B.S. degree with the highest honor in Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China, and earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Harvard University with Professor Charles M. Lieber in 2009. Before starting at Austin in the fall of 2012, Dr Yu did three years of postdoctoral research at Stanford University. His research is focused on the novel synthesis and self-assembly of new materials with rationally designed nanostructures and properties for energy and environmental science and technologies, and the fundamental understanding of the structure–property–performance relationship of materials at the molecular level.