Beijing-born architect Ma Yansong 马岩松 is recognized as an important voice of a new generation of architects. Since founding MAD in 2004, his works in architecture and art have been widely published and exhibited. He graduated from the Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture, then earned a masters degree in architecture from Yale University after receiving the American Institute of Architects Scholarship for Advanced Architecture Research. He has since taught architecture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Ma Yansong was awarded the 2006 Architecture League Young Architects Award. In 2008 he was selected as one of the twenty most influential Young Architects today by ICON magazine. In 2009 Fast Company named him one of the ten most creative people in architecture. In 2010 he became the first architect from China to receive an RIBA fellowship.