Research Assistant, School of Earth Sciences, The University of Western Australia; 

Research Assistant, Department of Geography and Resource Management (GRM), The Chinese University of Hong Kong; 

Distinguished Visiting Researcher, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia; 

Postdoctoral Researcher, Associate Professor (Tenure-Track), and Tenured Associate Professor, Department of Earth System Science (DESS), Tsinghua University.

Land cover and land use change

Agricultural land use and food security

Biodiversity monitoring

Sustainable land systems

Selected into a National High-level Talent Program

Selected into a National High-level Young Talent Program

Selected into the Shennong Talent Program of the Ministry of Agriculture

Clarivate “Highly Cited Researcher”

Special First Prize, Surveying and Mapping Science and Technology Progress Award, for “Key Technologies and Products for Global 30-m Land Cover Remote Sensing Mapping”

First Prize, Science and Technology Progress Award of China's Geospatial Industry and Sciences, for “Research on Long Time-series Mapping of Global Urban Expansion and Land Use”

First Prize, Science and Technology Progress Award of China's Geospatial Industry and Sciences, for “Key Technologies and Applications of Crop Yield Prediction Based on Time-series Remote Sensing Information”

Tsinghua University–Inspur Group Young Scientist Award in Computational Earth Science

“Innovative GIS Scholar in Higher Education”, 11th Higher Education GIS Forum

“Teaching Innovation Achievement Award”, 12th Higher Education GIS Forum

Best Paper of the Year, Science China: Earth Sciences

Hot Paper of the Year, Science China: Earth Sciences

Outstanding Contributing Editorial Board Member, Journal of Aerospace Science and Technology

Outstanding Reviewer, Journal of Remote Sensing

Third Prize, 10th China (Jiangsu) Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition

First Prize, Beijing Basic Education Research Paper Award

Third Prize, 11th Beijing Higher-Education Young Teachers' Basic Teaching Skills Competition

Outstanding Communist Party Member, Tsinghua University

Model Teacher of Curriculum-based Values Education, Tsinghua University

Model Course of Curriculum-based Values Education, Tsinghua University

First Prize, 8th Tsinghua University Young Teachers' Teaching Competition

Advanced Worker, Department of Earth System Science (DESS), Tsinghua University

Outstanding Graduate of Zhejiang Province

Outstanding Graduate of Zhejiang University

Le Yu, Xin Chen, Zhenrong Du, Pengyu Hao. 2025. Feature Papers for Land Systems and Global Change Section, 2nd Edition. MDPI.

Zhang Chunxiao, Hou Wei, Wu Pengda, Yu Hanguang, and Yu Le. 2025. Multidimensional Analysis of China's Urban Thermal Environment: From Local Climate Zones to Health Risks. Zhonghua Atlas Press.

Peng Dailiang, Wang Fumin, You Jiong, Huang Linsheng,  and Yu Le. 2025. Soybean Remote Sensing Monitoring and Prediction. Beijing: Science Press.

Le Yu, Pengyu Hao. 2024. Feature Papers for Land Systems and Global Change Section. MDPI.

Yu Le, Cheng Yuqi, and Li Weijia. 2024. Remote Sensing Mapping and Analysis of Global Oil Palm Plantation Distribution. Surveying and Mapping Press.

Kasturi Kanniah and Le Yu. 2024. Geospatial Technology for Sustainable Oil Palm Industry, Taylor & Francis.

Rui Yang, Yue Cao, Steve Carver, and Le Yu. 2023. National Parks and Protected Areas. MDPI.

Yu Le, Gong Peng, Cheng Yuqi, Xu Yidi, and Li Xuecao. 2019. Remote Sensing Monitoring of the Eco-environment of the Northeast Africa Region under the Belt and Road Initiative. Beijing: Science Press.

National Key R&D Program of China — Research on Rapid Biodiversity Assessment System and Country-level Practice for the Kunming-Montreal Framework. Ongoing. Principal Investigator.

National Key R&D Program of China — Fine-scale Crop Monitoring and Model Application for Smart Agriculture Management under Extreme Weather. Ongoing. Principal Investigator.

Near-Real-Time Surface Change  Monitoring and Quantitative Characterization Under Space-Air-Ground-Human Collaborative Observation

Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China — Near-real-time Land Surface Change Monitoring and Quantitative Characterization under Coordinated Space-Air-Ground-Human Observation. Ongoing. Principal Investigator.

A Method for Constructing a Land Cover Classification Model. Patent No.: ZL202011499481.7

A Method, Apparatus, Electronic Device and Medium for Constructing a Plant Functional Type Dataset. Patent No.: ZL202310383653.1

A Habitat Quality Monitoring Method and Monitoring Apparatus. Patent No.: ZL202310294353.6

A Monitoring Method and Apparatus for All Types of Greening Measures in Ecological Engineering. Patent No.: ZL202310298839.7

A Method, Apparatus, Electronic Device and Readable Storage Medium for Generating Urban Form Maps. Patent No.: ZL202211079918.0

A Training Method, Apparatus and Electronic Device for a Biological Population Assessment Model. Patent No.: ZL202211140439.5

A Method and System for Automatically Identifying Forest Growth Years Based on Time-series Analysis. Patent No.: 202210042096.2

A Method, System and Storage Medium for Determining Crop Planting Area Based on Phenological Characteristics. Patent No.: ZL202210150234.9

A Method and Apparatus for Collecting Crop Type Samples. Patent No.: ZL202210150097.9

A Method and System for Spatiotemporal Transfer of Land Cover Samples. Patent No.: ZL202210170717.5

A Method and System for Constructing Spectral Feature Time-series. Patent No.: ZL202210141806.7

A Method and System for Drought Index Monitoring Based on Deep Learning. Patent No.: ZL202110283892.0

A Method and System for Population Health Assessment Based on Eco-environmental Changes. Patent No.: ZL202110288401.1

Services to Academic Organizations

Council Member, China Agricultural Green Development Research Association

Council Member, Beijing Biodiversity Science Research Association

Member, Global Science Steering Committee (SSC), Global Land Programme (GLP)

Lead Author, Global Environment Outlook, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

[1] Li, C., Yu, L.*, et al. 2025. Mapping urban slums and their inequality in sub-Saharan Africa. Nature Cities, 2(11), 1037-1048.

[2] Xu, Y., Yu, L.*, ..., Li, W.*, et al. 2022. Recent expansion of oil palm plantations into carbon-rich forests. Nature Sustainability, 5(7), 574-577.

[3] Qu, W., …, Yu, L.*, Wu, C.* 2025. Delayed leaf green-up is associated with fine particulate air pollution in China. Nature Communications, 16(1), 3406.

[4] Wu, H., Yu, L.*, ..., Ma, K.* 2025. Potential of the world network of biosphere reserves to advance the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework. National Science Review, 12(12), nwaf449.

[5] Peng, D.*, ..., Yu, L.*, ..., Zhang, B.* 2025. Global soybean trade dynamics: Drivers, impacts, and sustainability. The Innovation, 7(2), 101124-101124.

[6] Cao, B., Yu, L.*, et. 2025. Terracing can reduce cropland water erosion in China by over 50% at present and under future climate change. One Earth, 8(10), 101490.

[7] Wang, S., ..., Yu, L.*, Qin, W.*, Liang, M.*, Yu, C.*, CHIMGEN Consortium. 2026. Genome‐Wide by Lifetime Environment Interaction Studies of Brain Imaging Phenotypes. Advanced Science, 13(8), e00852.

[8] Du, Z., …, Yu, L.*, et al. 2025. Dryland recovery and potential risk of grassland degradation in Three North of China. Science Bulletin, 71(6), 1322-1325.

[9] Xu, Y., Yu, L.*, et al. 2018. Tracking annual cropland changes from 1984 to 2016 using time-series Landsat images with a change-detection and post-classification approach: Experiments from three sites in Africa. Remote Sensing of Environment, 218, 13-31.

[10] Liu, T., Yu, L.*, et al. 2025. Afforestation surpasses abandonment in the recovery of post‐agricultural soil organic carbon in China as estimated by machine learning models. Global Change Biology, 31(8), e70383.

https://scholar.google.com.hk/citations?user=7cvzRTIAAAAJ&hl=en