Yilin was born in Shanghai, China. He obtained his BS in Chemical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2008. He obtained his PhD in Applied Chemistry from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2013 and another PhD in Engineering Science from Washington State University in 2015. His research focus in PhD studies was developing fluorophores with intramolecular charge transfer and aggregation-induced emission characteristics for the application of luminescent down-shifting and luminescent solar concentrators. In 2016, he joined the research group of Prof. Christine Luscombe as a Postdoc at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, where he worked on developing stretchable semicondcuting polymers for organic field-effect transistors (OFETs).In 2018, Yilin joined the research group of Prof. Rafael Verduzo as a Postdoc at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University. His current research is on developing semiconducting polymers for organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). OECTs are being explored for applications in biosensors, bioelectronics and large-area, low-cost electronics.
In his spare time, Yilin likes cooking and fishing. He also enjoys watching movies and reading books.