Yao-Nan Lien is the Dean of the College of Information and Electrical Engineering, Asia University. He is also a distinguished professor of the Department of Photonics and Communication Engineering. He received his B.S. from National Cheng Kung University in 1979, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University in 1981 and 1986, all in Electrical Engineering.

Previously, he was an assistant professor of Computer and Information Science at the Ohio State University from 1986 to 1989, a Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories from 1989 to 1993. From 1993 to 1995, he joined the Computer and Communication Research Laboratories (CCL), Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan. He was the Deputy Director of the Computer Software Technology Division at ITRI/CCL. He joined the Department of Computer Science of National Chengchi University in 1995. He was the Chairman of the department from 1996 to 1999 and the Dean of the College of Science from 2000-2003. From 2004 to 2006, he was a member of Telecom Conciliation Committee of The Directorate General of Telecommunications, Taiwan, R.O.C.

His research interests include mobile computing, computer and communication networks, database systems, telecommunication policy, and 3D Digital Archiving.