Yong Shao, Professor, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University；Secretary-General, World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia & the Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (WHITR-AP), and Director of WHITR-AP Shanghai；Director, Heritage Conservation and Culture Revitalization Institute, Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning & Design Institute CO., LTD; Vice President, Scientific Committee on Vernacular Architecture of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS-CIAV); Deputy Secretary General, Academic Committee on Historical and Cultural Cities of the Chinese Society of Urban Planning; Member of the editorial board of Built Heritage and Heritage Architecture.

Professor Yong Shao has long been committed to research, teaching, and practice in the fields of urban and rural development history, World Heritage, conservation and development of historic cities, towns, and villages, urban regeneration, rural revitalization, and cultural tourism. She has led and completed over 200 heritage conservation projects. Her publications include Equilibre et Harmonie: Protection et Mise en Valeur du Patrimoine Architectural, Urban et Paysager en France and World Heritage in China - Historic Cities. She has also published more than 70 academic papers and has led numerous major national natural and social science foundation supported research projects. She has received the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation three times and has been awarded more than 30 national and provincial/ministerial-level prizes for planning and design, heritage conservation, education, and scientific and technological innovation. In 2021, Yong Shao was awarded the "Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres". In 2024, she was elected as an Academician of the French Academy of Architecture.