PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Junchi Yan

Junchi Yan is an AI researcher who applies machine learning to graph and combinatorial optimization. He earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He spent seven years at IBM Research and founded SJTU-ReThinkLab in 2018. The lab studies combinatorial optimization and quantum computing, including a 2023 quantum neural network for the Quadratic Assignment Problem. IAPR named him a Fellow in 2024, and he received the IEEE-CIS Outstanding Early Career Award in 2025; as of October 2026, he is a tenured professor at SJTU and Program Co-Chair of ACM Multimedia 2026.

Works
520
Citations
18,640
h-index
62

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2011–2015

    Graduate study at SJTU

    At SJTU, he earns an M.S. in pattern recognition and intelligent systems in 2011 and a Ph.D. in information and communication engineering in 2015.

  2. 2017

    IBM and industrial inspection

    At IBM Research, his career spans seven years and includes work as a Band 9 Chief Researcher; he delivers a deep-learning quality-inspection project at CSOT in 2017.

  3. 2018

    Founding ReThinkLab

    In April 2018, he founds SJTU-ReThinkLab to combine data-driven learning with domain knowledge; the lab focuses on combinatorial optimization, quantum computing, and AI for science.

  4. 2023

    A quantum QAP solver

    At ICML 2023, he coauthors a paper with Xinyu Ye and Ge Yan that presents a supervised quantum neural network for the Quadratic Assignment Problem with matching constraints.

  5. 2024

    An IAPR Fellowship

    IAPR names him a Fellow in 2024 for contributions to (quantum) graph optimization, especially with machine learning and computer vision for remote sensing.

  6. August 2025

    An IEEE-CIS award

    In August 2025, he receives the IEEE-CIS Outstanding Early Career Award.

  7. As of October 2026

    Professor at SJTU

    He is a tenured professor at SJTU's School of Artificial Intelligence and serves as Program Co-Chair of ACM Multimedia 2026.

Sources and credits

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  1. Professors Junchi Yan and Xiaolei Zuo Named in MIT Technology Review’s “2023 China Intelligent Computing Innovators” List global.sjtu.edu.cn. Checked 15 October 2026.
  2. SJTU-ReThinkLab thinklab.sjtu.edu.cn. Checked 15 October 2026.
  3. Publication & Patent@ThinkLab thinklab.sjtu.edu.cn. Checked 15 October 2026.
  4. Towards Quantum Machine Learning for Constrained Combinatorial Optimization: a Quantum QAP Solver proceedings.mlr.press. Checked 15 October 2026.
  5. Chronological List of IAPR Fellows – International Association for Pattern Recognition iapr.org. Checked 15 October 2026.