Yao Yifeng is currently an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Design, Beijing Jiaotong University, China. He also serves as Vice Director of the university's Institute of Transportation Culture and Heritage Studies. Since 2017, he has been a member of ICOMOS China and the China National Alliance of Industrial Heritages. Since 2020, he has been commissioned as a duty urban planner by several townships in suburban Beijing.  

Professor Yao is a co-founder of the VR Lab of Transportation Culture and Design, which focuses on heritage conservation, urban regeneration, and TOD development. Under his leadership, the lab has completed or participated in over 10 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Beijing Social Science Foundation, and various ministerial research foundations. In collaboration with the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, he and his team are advancing several heritage-led urban renewal projects in National Historic Cities. Their work specifically focuses on developing and implementing localized policies that integrate urban conservation, community development, and public finance. Over the past five years, he has received multiple planning and design awards from the China Association of Urban Planning and the Beijing Engineering Exploration and Design Association.

Professor Yao holds a Ph.D. in Architecture, Urbanism, and Conservation from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at Tongji University and in the World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia and Pacific Region in Shanghai.