Chair Professor Department of Chemistry
Prof. Zhong-Ren Chen earned his B.S. in 1984 and M.S. in 1987 in Chemical Engineering at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, and his M.S. in 1995 and Ph.D. in 1998 in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry under the supervision by 2005 Nobel laureate Prof. Robert H. Grubbs and Prof. Julia A. Kornfield at the California Institute of Technology. He then moved to the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University with Prof. Robert M. Waymouth and to Honeywell Electronics as postdoctoral fellow. His industrial experience also includes 11 years of R&D with Bridgestone Americas in Akron, Ohio. In 2011, he joined Ningbo University as the Sir Y.K. Pao Distinguished Professor, the dean of the School of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, and founding chairman of the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering. Since 2016, Dr. Chen joined the Southern University of Science and Technology and Grubbs Institute as Chair Professor of Chemistry in Shenzhen, China.
Prof. Chen’s research interest is to harvest desired structures of polymers for optimal properties by various chemical, physical, and engineering approaches, with focus on “old” monomers and “new” materials. Interdisciplinary research creates synergies among organometallic and polymer chemistry, polymer physics and rheology, polymer reaction engineering, self-assembly and multi-scale processing, interfacial science and adhesion, as well as failure mechanism and crack propagation of soft materials and composites.
Personal Profile
Dr. Chen, Chair Professor of SUSTech & Expert of Polymer Science, published over 70 papers on Science、J. Am. Chem. Soc., Macromolecules,etc.
Education
1998-1999: Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemistry Department, Stanford University
1992-1998: Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry
M.S. in Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology
Advisors: Kornfield and Grubbs (Nobel Laureate 2005)
1980-1987: M.S. & B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University
Professional Experience
2016-Present: Chair Professor of Chemistry, SUSTech
2011-2016: Sir Y.K. Pao Distinguished Professor, Ningbo University
Founding Chair of Polymer Science and Engineering Department
Dean, School of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering
2000-2011: Senior Research Scientist (KMB), Bridgestone Americas
1999-2000: Postdoctoral Fellow, Honeywell Electronic Materials
1987-1992: Lecturer, Beijing University of Commerce and Industry
Fellowships, Honors, and Awards
The “Peacock Plan” A class, Shenzhen, Chian(2017)
The First Advisory Prize, Federation of Overseas Chinese, China(2014)
The Innovation Prize, Federation of Overseas Chinese, China(2014)
The Prize for Talent Recruiting, Zhejiang HGH Society, China(2014)
The Innovation Prize (Team), Federation of Overseas Chinese, China(2012)
The Zhejiang SciTech Award, Zhejiang, China(2011)
Distinguished National Advisor, China(2011)
Distinguished Advisor, Federation of Overseas Chinese, China(2011)
Distinguished Advisor, Zhejiang Province, China(2011)
Global Expert Recruitment Program, China(2010)
Research Interests
The goal of our research is to harvest desired metastable states of polymers and composites for achieving high-performance materials. The interdisciplinary nature creates synergies among organometallic and polymer chemistry, polymer physics and rheology, polymer reaction engineering, self-assembly and multi-scale processing, interfacial science and adhesion, as well as failure mechanism and crack propagation of soft materials. In particular, we develop chemical, physical, and engineering tools to control the chain entanglement, phase transitions, and interfacial behavior. We also work on the precise control of composition and chain architecture of olefin copolymers.
Representative Publications
[1] Zhong-Ren Chen, A. Issaian, Julia A. Kornfield, S.D. Smith, J.T. Grothaus, M.M. Satkowski, Pathways to Macroscale Order in Nanostructured Block Copolymers, Science, 227, 1248(1997)
[2] Zhong-Ren Chen, J.P. Claverie, Robert H. Grubbs, Julia A. Kornfield, Modeling Ring-Chain Equilibria in Ring-Opening Polymerization of Cycloolefins, Macromolecules, 28(7), 2147 (1995)
[3] Yanqiong Yang, Wenqin Wang, Tao Chen, and Zhong-Ren Chen,Simultaneous synthesis and assembly of silver nanoparticles to three-dimensional superstructures for sensitive surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy detection, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 6, 21468(2014)
[4] Gengsheng Weng,Hong Yao,Aijun Chang,Kun Fu,Yanpeng Liu,Zhong-Ren Chen,Crack growth mechanism of natural rubber under fatigue loading studied by a real-time crack tip morphology monitoring method,RSC Advances, 4, 43942(2014)
[5] Weijun Miao, You Lv, Wenge Zhen, Zongbao Wang, and Zhong-Ren Chen,Epitaxial crystallization of precisely fluorine-substituted polyethylene induced by carbon nanotube and graphene,Polymer, 83, 205(2016)
Research
Organometallic chemistry
Polymerization catalysts
Macromolecular reaction engineering
Polymer physics and rheology
Self-assembly and multi-scale processing
Interfacial science and adhesion
Failure mechanism and crack propagation of soft materials
Teaching
Lectures: Principles of Chemical Engineering, Polymer Physics
Publications Read More
A series of basic scientific and industrial research results have obtained in the field of new polymer materials. Prof. Chen has published over 70 papers, including papers in Science, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Macromolecules and Polymer, and authorized more than 40 patents.
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Join us
Postdoctoral and Research Associate Positions are always available in our group each year.