Dr. Yu is an Associate Professor in Health Psychology at Institute of Applied Psychology, Tianjin University. His research is focused on the association between social isolation, loneliness and health among older adults, effects of social relationship quality on stress response. His interests extend to the development of methods to reduce the negative effects of social disconnection. Dr. Yu received his PhD from Nankai University and previously taught at Tianjin Medical University. He used to be an academic visitor at University College London and conducted research in collaboration with Prof. Andrew Steptoe from the Department of Behavioural Science and Health. Dr. Yu has published over 30 journal articles, most of which are related to the health impacts of social connections. He is currently in charge of a project (The National Social Science Fund of China) to investigate the impacts of social isolation on mental and physical health among Chinese older adults.