Tu Chen

Early life and education Chen grew up in Yilan County, Taiwan before attending the National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, from which he earned a B.S degree in metallurgical engineering. The change from "brown disks" (iron-oxide particulate media) to thin-film metallic media represented a major advance in HDD technology. The company was purchased in 2007 by Western Digital

Since his retirement, Chen has devoted himself to technological advancement in Taiwan. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan. Chen was also one of the co-founders of the Taiwanese Alliance for Interculture (TAI 台灣協志會), which was formed in 1973 to promote the Taiwanese culture in the United States and to support the democratization of Taiwan.

In 1980, as an outcome of the Kaohsiung incident, a Taiwanese military court declared the TAI a “rebel group” and named Tu Chen and Ching C. (Jim) Shir, the co-founder of TAFNC and TAI, as “national traitors.” Jim Shir is one of the co-founders of Komag.

Chen was elected to serve as president of the Taiwanese American Association (全美台灣同郷) from 1983 to 1984 and the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations (WFTA 世界台灣同郷會聯合會) for two terms between 1983 and 1987. In 2022, Chen gave a talk on the history of TAFNC to its members.

In 1990, Chen received the Pacific Islander Outstanding Achievement Award in Washington DC.

In 1996, Chen received the Outstanding Alumni Award from Cheng Kung University of Tainan, Taiwan.

In 1999, Chen was elevated to Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for "contributions to the development of thin-film materials, tools, and processes used for magnetic and optical information storage disks".

In 2001, he received the IEEE Reynold B. Johnson Information Storage Systems Award for “leadership in the advancement of thin-film materials, tools, and processes used for magnetic information disks, and their commercialization as products”.

In 2005, Chen was interviewed by Chris Bajorek to create an oral history for the Computer History Museum, Mountain View.

In 2015, Chen received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota, College of Science and Engineering.