____________________________________________________________________________________
Biography:
Dr. Chen obtained his PhD in 1997 from the University of Reading, under sponsorship of the Overseas Research Scholarship (ORS) by the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals and a European Union research grant. After graduation, he joined the newly founded Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), a national research institute funded by the Singapore government. After spending three fruitful years in IMRE, the passion for education brought him to Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as an Assistant Professor in March 2000. He has been promoted to Associate Professor and Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering since then. So far, Prof. Chen has graduated 38 PhD students and 6 MEng students. He has also supervised over 300 undergraduate research projects (FYP, URECA, etc.).
Prof. Chen’s research interest includes 1) Surface engineering of materials and nanostructures for clean energy, environmental, microelectronic, and other functional applications; 2) Mechanical & long-term behaviors of materials, encompassing mechanics & fracture mechanics of bulk, composite, and thin film materials, materials joining, experimental and computational mechanics of materials, materials degradation and failure analysis. In the study of thin film mechanical behavior, he was the first to discover a significant substrate compliance effect on the energy release rate of thin film delamination. He also pioneered a novel buckling-based technique to measure thin film fracture toughness. The work in this area provides critical insights and design guidance for the development of flexible, printable electronic devices. His team has also made substantial progress in the development of mechanically durable coatings for self-cleaning, anti-icing, anti-fogging, and anti-fingerprint applications. Several patents / technological disclosures are made in this area.
Prof. Chen has been active in applied research in recent years with a total industrial project funding exceeding 10M SGD. In the academic community, he has served as an editor / editorial board member for several academic journals and book series. He has also served as a reviewer for more than 80 journals and a number of research funding agencies including the European Research Council (ERC).
============== job opening ==============
New research position will be posted here.
=====================================
Recent group news (archived past news):
13 January 2025: Welcome to Mr. Aloysius Liaw Chur Hao and Mr. Lee Chan Hon, who have just started their PhD journey at NTU.
19 May 2025: Yuheng has successfully defended her PhD thesis today. Congratulations, Dr. Deng!
11 August 2025: We warmly welcome Ms. Heng Xing Er, who has joined us as a PhD student. Xing Er obtained her BEng degree from MSE/NTU in July 2025.
01 October 2025: We extend our warm welcome to Dr. Zviad Tsakadze, who joined us as a Research Fellow.
|