Huanming Yang is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a co-founder of BGI. His research and teaching focus on genomics.

Together with BGI colleagues and international collaborators, he contributed to the Chinese components of the Human Genome Project, the International HapMap Project, the 1000 Genomes Project, the International Cancer Genome Consortium, and the Synthetic Yeast Genome Project. His work also encompasses genome projects involving rice, domesticated animals, silkworms, pandas, and the SARS coronavirus.

He is a member of The World Academy of Sciences and the European Molecular Biology Organization, and has been elected an international or foreign member of several national academies of sciences.