Yang's research interests lie in mathematical physics, mathematical finance and complex networks. He has worked on phase transitions and critical phenomena in statistical mechanics, Gaussian and non-Gaussian random fields with applications to quantum field theory, percolation, the Ising model, and self-avoiding random walks. His more recent work includes the following topics: quantum random walks with applications to quantum computing, ruin probability of risk processes and wireless networks. Yang received his Ph.D. at Cornell University under Eugene B. Dynkin.