Yang is a researcher working in CNR-ISMAR since 2019. She finished her Ph.D in 2012 in Physical Oceanography from Texas A&M University with the Ph.D thesis on the long term change of ENSO in an ensemble reanalyses and coupled climate models. After her Ph.D she has been working on conducting an ensemble of historical ocean reanalyses (1900-2010) by using different atmospheric forcing and data assimilation strategies. Meanwhile she has been working on the comparison and validation ocean reanalyses in a global scale and investigate the North Atlantic climate change by using ocean reanalyses. She also worked on the impact of stochastic physics on ENSO variability in coupled climate models.

Currently she is working in CNR-ISMAR, Roma, as a research scientist and leading a research group on ocean and climate dynamics. Her research activities focus on understanding the ocean and climate dynamics by using satellites observations, reanalysis, ocean and climate coupled models. She also works actively on climate assessment and monitoring within the framework of Copernicus Marine and Climate Service and she is leading two projects (C3S Evaluation and Quality Control of Climate datasets and CMEMS Global Ocean reanalysis intercomparison at meso-scale) funded by the Copernicus program.

She has also been leading the intercomparison task in the international Group of High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) and being a Science Member of the GHRSST science team.