Recently, Professor YAN Yu, director of the Corrosion and Protection Center of the Institute for Advanced Materials and Technology, was elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP), UK. Founded in 1873, the Institute of Physics (IOP), is a well-known international academic institution dedicated to improving the understanding and application of physics. Its mission is to promote the development of physics and its dissemination around the world, to promote the research and application of physics worldwide, and to promote the development of physics education.

According to the recommendation of experts, IOP selects scientists who have made a very high level of achievement in physics and an outstanding contribution to the profession as its fellows every year. In September 2021, Professor YAN Yu was elected as the Ordinary Member of the Tribology Group of IOP.

Professor YAN Yu graduated from the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) with a bachelor's degree. In 2006, he received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Leeds and returned to the Corrosion and Protection Center of USTB in 2010. He currently focuses on the fields of corrosion, friction and wears, hydrogen embrittlement, stress corrosion, and materials genome engineering. Professor YAN Yu has been invited to be the chief editor of  Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials, a well-known journal in the corrosion field since 2020.

At present, he has published more than 130 research papers, applied for 8 international and national patents, and presided over 5 National Natural Science Foundation of China projects and a number of National Key R&D Projects of the 13^th and 14^th five-year plans. Professor YAN Yu was awarded the Outstanding Chinese Students Abroad of the China Scholarship Council (CSC) by the Ministry of Education of China in 2006, the International Tribology Bronze Medal awarded by the International Tribology Council in 2008, First Prize for the best paper award from Beijing Association for Science and Technology in 2015, First Prize of Science and Technology of Chinese Society for Corrosion and Protection (CSCP) in 2021.

At present, Professor YAN Yu is employed as a member of the Surface Engineering Subcommittee of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society; Deputy Director and Secretary General of the Professional Committee for Corrosion Control of Medical Metallic Materials of the Chinese Society for Corrosion and Protection (CSCP), Deputy Director of the Erosion Corrosion Professional Committee of CSCP, etc. In 2022, he was employed as a member of the secretariat of the National Advisory Committee of Experts on New Materials Industry Development Strategy.