Received B.S. degree in 1982, M.S. degree in 1986 and Ph.D. degree in 1992 in solid mechanics from Southwest Jiaotong University, P.R. China, From 1992 to 1994 he was a postdoctoral researcher in Department of Aircraft, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In 1994 he joined School of Chemical Engineering & Technology, Tianjin University, P.R.China.  Since 1997, he has been Professor and chair of Department of Process Equipment and Machinery. He was visiting professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland Baltimore County, U.S.(1996-1997); Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, Japan (Feb,1998-Mar,1998); Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nevada at Reno, U.S. (Sep.,2000-Nov.,2002); Division of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology( Feb., 2001-Jul.,2001). Department of Material Science and Engineering, Virginia Tech.(Sep.-Nov.,2007), and Distinguished visiting scientist and faculty in ORNL (Jan.-Apr., 2011). He is a Scientific Committee member of International Conference on Multiaxial fatigue and Fracture.  He is the member of Editor Board of Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures.

His main research field is mechanical behavior of materials, low cycle fatigue, multiaxial fatigue, creep-fatigue and constitutive modeling for electronic and conventional structural materials. He has published over 130 papers in international journals. Dr. Chen received the Teaching and Research Award Program for Outstanding Young Teachers in Higher Education Institutions of Ministry of Education, P.R.China in 2002 and Thomson Scientific Research Fronts Award 2008. He is Most Cited Chinese Researchers in the Elsevier list from 2014 to 2016 in the field of Mechanics of Material.