Prof. Yu-Yong Jiao has been named a Yat-Sen Distinguished Scholar and the deputy director of the State Key Laboratory for Tunnel Engineering at Sun Yat-Sen University (SYSU) since July 2024. He also serves as the Chairperson of the DDA Commission of the International Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (ISRM) since 2019, and is on the editorial boards of several top international journals such as 'International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences', 'Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology', 'International Journal of Geomechanics-ASCE' and 'Journal of Earth Science'. He was selected as a National Candidate of the Hundred, Thousand, and Ten Thousand Talents Project, namely National Young and Middle-aged Expert with Outstanding Contributions in 2017, and received the Special Government Allowance from the State Council in 2019. Prof. Jiao was one of the Elsevier '2024 & 2025 Most Cited Chinese Researchers', and included in Stanford University's list of the World's Top 2% Scientists for four consecutive years from 2022.

Prof. Jiao graduated from Shandong University of Science and Technology with a bachelor's degree of Mining Engineering in 1992 and a master's degree of Safety Technology and Engineering in 1995, respectively; he obtained his Ph.D in Geotechnical Engineering from Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IRSM, CAS) in 1998. Before he joined SYSU, he once served as a professor and the Research Office director at ISRM, CAS, a Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, as well as the Civil Engineering Chief Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at China University of Geosciences (CUG).

Prof. Jiao mainly engages in research on tunnel and deep earth engineering. He has been deeply involved in fields such as high-speed transportation, deep coal mines, water conservancy and hydropower, and new urbanization for more than 30 years. He has won Second-class National Science and Technology Progress Awards for three times and First-class Provincial and Ministerial Awards for four times. Focusing on teaching study and talent cultivation, he has successfully supervised nearly 100 master's and doctoral students and postdoctoral research fellows. He also attaches great importance to international exchanges and cooperation. In 2023, the DDA Commission he leads won the Best Commission Award. He is enthusiastic about public undertakings and has accumulated rich experiences in construction of university subjects, disciplines, research teams, and scientific platforms. He has led the approvals of multiple national-level scientific research platforms, doctoral programs, and provincial discipline clusters.