An Yin

Yin is the 2022 recipient of the Penrose Medal from the Geological Society of America (GSA).

Jessica Watkins, an astronaut selected in the NASA class of 2017, was one of his former Ph.D. students

Paul A. Kapp, a Professor of Geology at the University of Arizona and a former PhD student of Yin, was the 2008 recipient of the Donath Medal from the Geological Society of America

In 1994, Yin was awarded the Donath Medal from the Geological Society of America (GSA). He became a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 2013, and has been a GSA Fellow since 1994.

In 1992, Yin met Sandy, a Chinese American who was born in Hong Kong. They were married in 1997 and have two children.

In 1987, Yin was offered a tenure track Acting Assistant Professor position at UCLA, one year before he officially obtained his doctoral degree from USC. At UCLA, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor in 1988, promoted to an Associate Professor in 1993, and has been a Full Professor since 1996 .

Despite the lack of systematic education in elementary, middle and high schools resulting from numerous disruptions in life during the Cultural Revolution, Yin managed to pass the nationwide university examination in China and entered the Peking University in 1978. He graduated in 1982 with a B.S. degree in Geomechanics and stayed on for one year in a MS program studying Precambrian geology of northern China under the supervision of Professor Xianglin Qian at the Peking University. He came to the United States in 1983 without finishing his MS degree in China. From 1983 to 1987, Yin pursued his Ph.D. degree in geology at the University of Southern California (USC) under the supervision of Professor Gregory A. Davis.

Yin was born in the city of Harbin, northeastern China. His parents were medical school professors and were sent to countryside during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976 in China. Yin was spending part of his early life living in a small village with his parents during this time. His experience during the Cultural Revolution has profoundly shaped his later life.

An Yin (born 1959) is a Chinese-American Earth scientist and a Professor of Geology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His early work explores the mechanical origin and kinematic evolution of low-angle normal faults and thrust systems in the North American Cordillera. He is perhaps best known for his work on the tectonic evolution of the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau. His research interests have shifted in recent years to slow-earthquake mechanics, early Earth tectonics, and planetary studies.