Zhiyun Yang (1969-2007) was born in Beijing, the capital of China.  Both of her parents are mathematician and worked for Chinese Academy of Sciences.  With mathematics in her blood, she is extremely smart ever since her childhood.  She skipped two grades in the primary school and went to Affiliate High School of Beijing University in 1980.  In 1986, she entered the Beijing University, the dream university in China, to study computational Mathematics at the age of seventeen.  She came to United States in 1990 to pursue her Ph.D. degree.

She earned BS in Computational Mathematics from Beijing University in 1990, MS of Applied Mathematics from University of Washington in 1992, Ph.D. of Applied Mathematics from University of Washington in 1996, and M.B.A from University of Houston in 2007.

From July 1996 to April 1997, Zhiyun worked for Pacific Northwest National Lab as a software R&D associate.  From May 1997 to May 2000, she worked for PacifiCorp as an IT specialist.  Zhiyun worked for Enron as a Sr. IT specialist from June 2000 to January 2002. Since February 2002, Zhiyun worked for Calpine Corp. as a Sr. Specialist, IS Manager and Director. She successfully led IS risk management and trading teams in delivery of new systems, enhanced Calpine’s energy trading and risk management system, and set the strategy roadmap for the future.

Besides working very hard and efficiently, she managed to spread her time in her broad interests: reading, traveling, making friends, playing Guqin (a Chinese ancient stringed instrument), performing Peking Opera, writing poem and score, painting, skiing, scuba diving, birding, skygazing and much more.