He served as Director of the CAS Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP) in Beijing.
Yao was born in July 1954 in Tongwei County, Gansu.
in 1978 and M.S in 1982 both from the Department of Geography, Lanzhou University in Gansu, China.
He has been director of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), CAS since its founding in 2003.
[citation needed] Yao received awards for his research including the Natural Science Award and the Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize.