Dr. Yulin Qin received his ME degree in Computer Science and Engineering in 1982 at Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautic and Ph.D degree 1992 in Cognitive Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), with Herbert Simon as advisor working on mental imagery and problem solving, and scientific discovery. He learnt cognitive neuroscience including using multiple channel single-cell recording technology to explore the functions of spatial representation and memory consolidation in hippocampal structure of the rats during his postdoc training periods. He went back to CMU in 2000 to work with John Anderson in ACT-R and fMRI. Now he is a senior research scientist in the Department of Psychology, CMU, and a distinguished professor (and Ph.D advisor) at the International WIC Institute, Beijing University of Technology.

He has co-authored with John Anderson for 13 papers related to ACT-R and fMRI published in journals including PNAS, and his SCI citation is over 900 times (500 for articles with the first or second authorship).