• Computer simulations and experimental measurements of built environment
• Energy-efficient, healthy, and sustainable buildings

Qingyan “Yan” Chen is the Director of the PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research (PAIR) and Chair Professor of Building Thermal Science in the Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, United States. He also served as the Editor-in-Chief of Building and Environment from 2008 to 2024.

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. He worked as a Research Scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Zurich) from 1989 to 1991, as a Project Manager for TNO in the Netherlands from 1991 to 1994, and as Assistant and Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1995 to 2002. Before he joined PolyU, Chen was Professor, Vincent P. Reilly Professor, and James G. Dwyer Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University from 2002 to 2021.

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.

Chen’s current research topics include indoor environment, aircraft cabin environment, and energy-efficient, healthy, and sustainable building design and analysis. Chen has published three books, six papers in book chapters, and over 500 journal and conference papers, and has been invited to deliver more than 200 lectures internationally. According to Google Scholar, Chen’s publications have been cited by over 30,000 times with an H-index of 90. He has been awarded more than US$39 million research funds.

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 in 1996. 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 in 2007, 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) in 2011, and Distinguished Achievement Award that is “to recognise 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) in 2013. Chen was awarded as an honorable member of the Society of Heating, Air-conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan (SHASE) in 2020 for “promoting to encourage the international academic exchange and to enhance the friendly cooperation with oversea academic societies”. Chen was also recognised by the Hong Kong SAR government as a Global STEM Professor in 2021 and was elected to be a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering in 2022. Chen is a fellow of the ASHRAE, the International Society of Indoor Air Quality (ISIAQ), the International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM), and Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA).

Chen’s research results have been reported by TV channels such as CNN, Fox, ABC, BBC, Deutsche Welle, ARD and NOS, and newspapers such as Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, etc. CCTV 4’s documentary programme “Chinese World” featured Chen in two episodes “Chen Qingyan from a Farmer to a Scientist”.

Watch more: http://news.cntv.cn/20120621/110464.shtml; http://news.cntv.cn/20120622/102162.shtml; https://youtu.be/P82IdK94VQ8; https://youtu.be/7YwIjmjaXrw

陳清焰是香港理工大學高等研究院院長、建築環境及能源工程系建築熱科學講座教授，及美國普渡大學機械系榮休教授，他於2008至2024年期間擔任《Building and Environment》國際期刊的主編。

陳清焰於1983年獲清華大學工學學士學位，其後分別於1985年和1988年獲得荷蘭代爾夫特技術大學工學碩士和博士學位。他於1989至1991年在瑞士聯邦高等工學院擔任研究員，1991至1994年在荷蘭應用科學研究中心（TNO）擔任項目經理，1995至2002年在美國麻省理工學院（MIT）任助理教授和副教授。加入香港理工大學之前，他於2002至2021年期間在美國普渡大學任教授、Reilly講座教授和Dwyer講座教授。

陳清焰在職業生涯中同時兼任多項學術要職，例如澳洲墨爾本皇家理工大學榮譽教授；丹麥技術大學Otto Mönsted訪問教授；湖南大學千禧年高級訪問教授和客座教授；英國卡迪夫大學教授研究員；天津大學特聘教授和長江講座教授；中國科學院創新團隊成員；哈爾濱工業大學境外博導和兼職教授；日本東京工業大學、芬蘭赫爾辛基技術大學、清華大學、西安交通大學、東南大學、大連理工大學、中南大學、湖南大學、蘇州大學和廣州大學客座或訪問教授等。此外，他在荷蘭愛因霍恩技術大學、意大利卡利亞大學和帕多瓦大學，以及澳大利亞昆士蘭技術大學，聯合培養博士生。

陳清焰目前的研究課題包括飛機座艙環境、室內環境，以及高效、節能、健康、可持續發展的建築設計和分析。陳清焰至今發表著作三部、書籍章節六章、期刊和會議論文500多篇，應邀作國際學術報告200多次。陳清焰的期刊論文被引用超過3萬次（Google Scholar），H因子90。他至今獲得的科研經費超過3,900萬美元。

陳清焰曾獲美國採暖製冷與空調工程師學會（ASHRAE）授予多項「最佳論文獎」和「特別傑出服務獎」，及於1996年獲頒美國國家自然科學基金會「教授早期成就獎」（CAREER）。2007年，他因其「在污染物控制領域做出的突出貢獻」，獲國際環境科學與技術研究協會授予Willis J. Whitfield 獎；2011年，因「建築通風和氣流組織模擬和測量的傑出貢獻」，獲北歐供熱、通風和衛生工程學會（SCANVAC）授予John Rydberg金獎章；2013年，因「在職業生涯中對建築性能模擬過程的重大貢獻」，獲國際建築性能模擬學會（IBPSA）授予「傑出成就獎」。2020年，陳清焰榮膺日本空氣調和衛生工程學會（SHASE）榮譽會士，以表彰他「促進國際學術交流，加強與海外學術團體的友好合作」。 他於2021年獲香港特區政府授予「傑出創科學人」稱號，及於2002年當選為香港工程院院士。陳清焰是ASHRAE、國際室內空氣品質學會（ISIAQ）、國際先進材料學會（IAAM）和亞太人工智能學會（AAIA）的會士。

陳清焰的研究成果獲美國CNN、福克斯、ABC、英國BBC、德國之聲、德國ARD，荷蘭NOS電視台，以及《華盛頓郵報》、《紐約時報》、《華爾街日報》以及英國《衛報》等國際重要媒體報導。中央電視台中文國際頻道（CCTV-4）更於人物紀錄片《華人世界》，分別以上下兩集講述了陳清焰教授的故事，該集節目題為《陳清焰從農家娃到科學家》。

觀看更多：http://news.cntv.cn/20120621/110464.shtml；http://news.cntv.cn/20120622/102162.shtml；https://youtu.be/P82IdK94VQ8；https://youtu.be/7YwIjmjaXrw