Yoshi Ohno is a NIST Fellow, and actively involved in research pertaining to photometry and colorimetry, in particular, luminous flux measurement, colorimetry of light sources, color rendering, spectroradiometry, and solid state lighting. He is a Fellow of Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES).

He is very active in national and international standardization work, currently serving as the President of International Commission on Illumination (CIE), the NIST representative for Consultative Committee for Photometry and Radiometry (CCPR), Chair of CCPR Working Group on Key Comparisons, and active in many technical committees in CIE, ANSI, and IES. He is known as the primary author of the key standards for solid state lighting – IES LM-79 Photometric Measurements of Solid State Lighting Products, ANSI C78.377 Specifications for the Chromaticity of Solid State Lighting Products, which are widely used internationally. He also led the developments of IES LM-85 Photometric Measurements of High-Power LEDs, and most recently, CIE S 025 Test Method for LED Lamps, LED modules, and LED luminaires, which is the key international standard for testing LED lighting products.