Yan Xiao is the Qiushi Distinguished Chair Professor, Zhejiang University - University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (ZJUI), Zhejiang University. He directs the Zhejiang University-Ninghai Joint Research Center for Bio-based Materials and Carbon Neutral Development, with the focus on research and practice in modern bamboo, timber and bio-based composite structures.
He graduated from the Tianjin University, China in 1982, then spending 7 years in Japan, receiving M.Eng. and Dr.Eng. degrees from the Kyushu University. After four years of research experiences on seismic retrofit of bridges as Post-doctoral researcher and Scientist at University of California, San Diego, he joined the faculty in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Southern California, with the final rank as a tenured full professor till 2011. Before joining the ZJUI in 2018, he served as the Dean of Civil Engineering Colleges at the Hunan University and the Nanjing Tech University. Xiao’s endeavor with bamboo research and practice started in 2005 after a trip to a bamboo forest in the Hunan Province. Since then, his group systematically conducted research on modern bamboo structures, developed technologies, such as glued laminated bamboo (glubam), cross laminated bamboo and timber (CLBT or CLTB), etc. His group has built many bamboo buildings and bridges in China and Africa. Most recently, the Ninghai Bamboo Tower, the Double-water Low-carbon Community Center Building received numerous international awards, including the ASCE AEI Most Innovative Project, in 2025, 2026.