[1] He worked at the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) in Washington, D.C., and subsequently at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was for 25 years the R. K. Mellon Professor of Chemistry and Physics as well as the founding director of the Pittsburgh Surface Science Center before moving to the University of Virginia in 2007.
[2] Yates received his bachelor's degree from Juniata College in 1956 and his doctorate in physical chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1960.
Following three years as an assistant professor at Antioch College, he joined the National Bureau of Standards as the scientific staff.
[3] Yates served on the editorial boards of six journals and two-book series in surface science and catalysis.
[4] Yates was a professor of chemistry at the University of Virginia in both the engineering school and the college of arts and sciences.