Yixiao was born in Beijing and graduated from the School of Physics at Wuhan University, with a focus on theoretical physics. After finishing his bachelor's degree, Yixiao went to Australia to take a PhD in stellar astrophysics at the Australian National University.

In his work, Yixiao will be using state-of-the-art 3D modelling of stellar surface, as well as detailed stellar evolution modelling to study the oscillation of solar-like stars.