Yang’s research applies behavioral decision science to characterizing and communicating scientific results to inform risk-related decisions. Her work addresses topics in energy decarbonization, public health communication, and medical decision making, with a particular focus on how people understand and integrate uncertain evidence and how communication approaches can support more informed judgments and decisions.Her teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include energy and environmental issues, behavioral science, and health communication.

Her research projects and collaborations bridging judgment and decision making with practical problems, have been published in Nature Medicine, Decision, Environmental Research Communications, Medical Decision Making, and other peer-reviewed journals. Her recent work includes assessing the economic and policy potential as well as barriers for a sustainable heating transition in China.

Yang holds a B.A. and an M.S. from Tsinghua University and a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, where she also served as a post-doctoral researcher in 2022.