Yu Zhang earned a BSc in Applied Mathematics from Peking University in 1991 and a PhD in Computational Mathematics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1996. He served as a Postdoc at Caltech (1997-1998), the Research Director at VeritasDGC (1999-2006), the Global Research Manager at CGG (2007-2013), and the Manager of Geophysical Development at ConocoPhillips (2013-2021). Currently, he holds the positions of Senior Technical Advisor to the President of BGP and Senior Vice President at BGP in Houston. His accolades include the Bonarelli Award from EAGE (2007), and the J. Clarence Karcher Award (2004), Best Paper in Geophysics (2005), and Virgil Kauffman Gold Medal (2012) from SEG.