Prof. Yu pioneered the introduction of several new scientific concepts related to nanoscale systems and the development of novel experimental methods that accelerated the fundamental study of nanomaterials and enabled the practical 3-D nanofabrication of nanostructures, such as the multi-degrees of freedom nanomanipulators for scanning electron microscope and the meniscus-confined 3-D nanofabrication technologies.

He was an Associate Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign prior to coming to Georgia Tech. He received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the University of Science and Technology of China, Fudan University, and Washington University in St. Louis, respectively.

Prof. Yu's research interests span from understanding basic mechanics and physics of materials to the nanomanufacturing of related microscale/nanoscale devices and systems.