His great-grandfather served in a government office during the Qing Dynasty and contributed official records for an edition of Shanghai History.

His father Ye Jingyun (叶景澐) was a successful candidate in the imperial examinations at the provincial level, and was designated as the headmaster of Jingye School (敬业学堂), as well as a Chinese professor at Tsinghua University and the chairman of the Shanghai Education Association.

Mr. Duane, Ye and H. Palmer successfully posted the academic article A re-measurement of the Radiation constant, h, by means of X-Rays at National Academy of Sciences.

[2] In 1924, he became part of the faculty at National Southeast University as an assistant professor and joined the Chinese Science Association.

Additionally, Ye supported Xiong Qinglai's approval of Hua Luogeng to teach at Tsinghua, despite the latter only having a middle school diploma.

Xiong taught bomb technology and bought wireless utilities through Ye's network, significantly resolving the shortage of weapons suffered by the Eighth Route Army.

In 1969, he was released back to Peking University, but was still isolated as "a suspect of a Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics agent".

[5] Other than Qian, Zhao Yuanren, Ren Zhigong, Lin Jiaqiao, Dai Zhenduo, Chen Ning Yang requested visits with him, but received refusals from the government.

In 1975, his isolation was ended and his students Chen Daisun, Wu Youxun, Wang Zhuxi and Qian Weichang were finally able to visit him.