Dr. Qingyan (Yan) Chen is Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University and the Editor-in-Chief of Building and Environment.
Dr. Chen earned his B.Eng. in 1983 from Tsinghua University and M.Eng. in 1985 and Ph.D. in 1988 from the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). He served as a Research Scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Zurich) from 1989 to 1991, a Project Manager for TNO in the Netherlands from 1991 to 1994, an Assistant and Associate Professor the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1992 to 2002, and Professor, Vincent P. Reilly Professor, and James G. Dwyer Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University from 2002 to 2021. Chen has recently moved to the Hong Kong Polytechnic University where he serves as a Chair Professor and Director of PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research.
Dr. Chen has many other parallel appointments in his career, such as Honorary Professor at RMIT University in Australia, Otto Monsted Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Denmark, New Millennium Yuelu Outstanding Visiting Professor at Hunan University in China, Professorial Fellow at the Cardiff University in the UK, Research Fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Visiting/Guest/Adjunct Professor at Tokyo Polytechnic University in Japan, Helsinki University of Technology in Finland, and Tianjin University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Tsinghua University, Southeast University, Dalian University of Technology , Xi'an Jiaotong University, Soochow University, Centra South University, Hunan University and Guangzhou University in China. In addition, he has co-supervised Ph.D. students from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, University of Cagliari and University of Padua in Italy, and Queensland University of Technology in Australia.
Dr. Chen's current research topics include indoor environment, aircraft cabin environment, and energy-efficient, healthy, and sustainable building design and analysis. He has published three books and over 470 journal and conference papers, and has been invited to deliver more than 180 lectures internationally.
Chen received several technical paper and poster awards and Distinguished and Exceptional Service Awards from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and CAREER award from the National Science Foundation in the United States. He has also received the Willis J. Whitfield Award "for significant contributions to the field of contamination control through numerous published papers, studies, and reports" from the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology, John Rydberg Gold Medal for "outstanding contribution to the advancement of modelling and measurement of ventilation and air distribution in buildings" from the Scandinavian Federation of Heating, Ventilating and Sanitary Engineering Associations (SCANVAC), and Distinguished Achievement Award that is "to recognize individuals who have made substantial contributions to the field of building performance simulation over the course of their careers" from the International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA). He was awarded as an honorable member of the Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan for "promoting to encourage the international academic exchange and to enhance the friendly cooperation with oversea academic societies". Dr. Chen is a fellow of the ASHRAE, the International Society of Indoor Air Quality (ISIAQ), and the International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM).