A recipient of Doctor of Design at Harvard GSD, Yu is Professor and founding dean of Peking University College of Architecture and Landscape, founder and design principle of Turenscape that practices globally. He is a strong advocator of “ecological security patterns” and “sponge cities” that have been adopted by the Chinese government for the nationwide ecological campaign. His projects have won numerous international design awards including 14 ASLA Excellence and Honor Awards (American Society of Landscape Architects), 5 WAF Best Landscape Architecture of the Year Award (World Archi. Festival). He was elected International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016 and is a recipient of the Doctor Honoris Causa from Sapienza University of Rome and Honorary Doctorate from Norwegian University of Life Sciences. He received the 2020 IFLA Sir Geffrey Jellico Award — the highest honor given by the International Federation of Landscape Architects, and the 2021 Cobb Common Good Award.