Qingyan Chen

Qingyan Chen, also called Chen Qingyan (, surname first) or shortly Yan Chen, is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Chair Professor and the Director of the PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research (PAIR) at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is also professor emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University in the United States, and former editor-in-chief of the academic journal Building and Environment (2006–2024).

He is an expert on air flow in closed spaces, and has, for example, developed mathematical models for coughing. During the COVID-19 pandemic he used his research on how to track the spread of air particles in passenger vehicles to develop mathematical models for the spread of the virus in cruise ships, aeroplanes and other vehicles.

Academic career

Chen received his bachelor's degree in 1983 from Tsinghua University in China, and his master's degree (1985) and Ph.D. (1988) from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. From 2002 to 2021, he served as a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University. Currently, Chen is