Professor Yang Dan, Director and Senior Principal Investigator of the Institute of Neuromodulation and Cognition (INC) at the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, according to the institution's 2026 cohort announcement on May 27.

A leading expert in sleep, cognitive control, and visual processing, Professor Dan has published more than 90 academic papers. Her prolific research includes seminal studies featured in premier journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, Neuron, and Nature Neuroscience. At the helm of the Sleep and Consciousness Lab, her research group aims to uncover the neural underpinnings of consciousness while addressing two of the most fundamental questions in the field: why we sleep, and how the brain regulates it.

Previously, Professor Dan was elected as a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2018 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2025.

Founded in 1660, the Royal Society serves as the UK's national academy of sciences. As the oldest continuously existing scientific academy in the world, it commands immense prestige across the global scientific community.