Professor Gang Chen with the vacuum chamber used in his research photo: MIT news
The American National Academy of Engineering NAE announced 68 newly elected members on Feb. 17, 2010. Professor Gang Chen, HUST alumnus and Director of the Pappalardo Micro and Nano Engineering Laboratories in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT, was elected to NAE for his contributions to heat transfer at the nanoscale and to thermoelectric energy conversion technology.
Prof. Chen for the first time confirmed the breakdown of Planck's blackbody radiation law, suggesting that when two objects are very close together the heat transfer can be 1,000 times greater than the law predicts. This finding could "provide a useful tool to understand some basic physics", it could also lead to practical applications including thermoelectricity, semiconductor and magnetic storage.
Founded in 1964, the NAE is a member of the National Academies, which includes NAE, National Academy of Sciences NAS , the Institute of Medicine IOM , and the National Research Council NRC . Election to the National Academy of Engineering is considered to be the highest achievement accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education". The NAE now has 2,267 U.S.members and 196 foreign associates.
Three of the 68 newly elected members are Chinese Americans. The other two are Prof. Xiang Zhang, Director of Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center of the University of California, Berkeley, and Prof. Hau L. Lee, Professor of Operations, Information, and Technology and Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.
Prof. Chen is a Carl Richard Soderberg Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT. He received his B.S. 1984 and M.S. 1987 from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. In 1993 he graduated from University of California, Berkeley and got his Ph.D. He has held positions at Duke University as assistant professor from 1993 to 1997, and associate professor at University of California, Los Angeles from 1997 to 2001. Since then he has worked at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He is the recipient of numerous awards and honours including American National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, Guggenheim Fellow and fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineering ASME . He works as editor for five academic journals in Thermophysics, Nanotechnology and Energy Technology. His other professional activities include Chair of Advisory Board of ASME Nanotechnology Institute, Director of Pappalardo Micro and Nano Engineering Laboratories and Director of Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center S3TEC Center with the investment of $17.5M from the Energy Frontier Research Center of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Prof. Chen is a leading expert in the field of heat transfer, nanotechnology and energy technology. His pioneer research on heat transfer in quantum mode promotes the study of thermoelectric materials in nanostructures.
