Rate My Professor James Chen

James Chen, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University at Buffalo. He earned his PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from The George Washington University in 2011, with a dissertation titled Micropolar Electromagnetic Fluids: Theory and Simulation advised by Professors James D. Lee and Chunlei Liang. He previously received an MS in Applied Mechanics from National Taiwan University in 2007 and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from National Chung-Hsing University in 2005.

Chen's academic career includes serving as Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University at Buffalo since May 2018, with promotion to Associate Professor. Prior roles encompass Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Kansas State University from August 2015 to May 2018, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Pennsylvania State University Altoona College from August 2012 to June 2015, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne from August 2011 to May 2012. His research interests focus on fundamental theories and numerical simulations across multiple spatial and temporal scales, including turbulence, triboelectricity, atomistic simulation, continuum mechanics, applied mathematics, and multiscale simulation. Key areas include multiscale modeling, fluid dynamics, morphing continuum theory, micropolar fluids, fracture mechanics, nanomaterials, energy harvesting, and computational mechanics. He directs the Multiscale Computational Physics Lab.

Chen has garnered significant recognition, including election as Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2022 and Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2022. Other honors are the Outstanding Young Engineer Award from the Wichita Council of Engineering Societies in 2018, U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award in 2017, Steve Hsu Keystone Research Faculty Scholar from 2017 to 2020, Paul H. Cutler Faculty Excellence Endowment in Condensed Matter Physics from Penn State in 2014, and Research Collaboration Fellowship Award from Penn State Materials Research Institute in 2014. Notable publications include 'A Morphing Continuum Analysis of Energy Transfer in Compressible Turbulence' in Physical Review Fluids (2018), 'Morphing Continuum Theory for Turbulence: Theory, Computation and Visualization' in Physical Review E (2017), 'An Advanced Theory for Morphing Continuum with Inner Structures' in Reports on Mathematical Physics (2017), 'Morphing Continuum Description for Boundary Layer Transition and Turbulence' in Journal of Fluids Engineering (2017), and 'An Integrated FFT-Based Phase-Field and Crystal Plasticity Approach for Modeling Static Recrystallization of 3-D Polycrystals' in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (2015). His work advances understanding in turbulence modeling and multiscale phenomena in mechanical and aerospace engineering.