Ou-Yang has worked at the Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing since 1989 and has served as director from 1998-2007. He is also adjunct professor at the Center for Advanced Study at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He made distinguished contributions to soft matter physics and biophysics., e.g. the Ouyang-Helfrich shape equation for vesicles of spontaneous curvature, the theory of vesicle-to-tube shape transition of bipeptide aggregates, and the new theory of icosahedron shape of virus capsid and nano-aggregates, the elastic model of double-strand DNA which has been acknowledged as one of the most important early theoretical works on DNA. His honours include: Asia Achievement Prize(1993), Overseas Chinese Physical Society; First Award in Natural Science(1995), CAS, Beijing; Second Award, Chinese National Prize for Natural Sciences(1999); Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation (HLHL) Prize for Progress in Science and Technology (2004); The National Outstanding Scientific and Technological Workers, by China Association for Science and Technology (2010). He has became an academician of CAS since1997.

A prominent physical chemist and nanomaterial expert, Dr. HOU has made significant contributions in synthesis and characterization of nanomaterial and nanostructures, physical and chemical properties of single molecules and their assemblies, and scanning tunnel microscopy. He studied physics at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) from 1978, completing his Bachelor degree in 1983 and then received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in 1986 and 1989, respectively. From 2008 to 2015, Dr. HOU held the position as President of USTC until he became Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST). Afterwards, he worked successively in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine from 2016 to 2017. In 2018 He was appointed as Vice President (full ministerial level) of CAS. He was elected CAS Member in 2003 and Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) in 2004. He is also Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry of UK.