Zhen Chen

Short Bio:

Zhen Chen is one of the pioneers in modeling nonlocal interfacial failure evolution and has designed effective numerical schemes for evaluating the post-peak responses with the use of nonlocal damage, plasticity and decohesion. He initiated the interdisciplinary effort to co-develop the material point method (MPM) for better simulating multiphase interactions under extreme loading conditions (high loading rate, pressure and temperature), with its first journal paper being cited more than 1500 times (Google Scholar, 6/2023). He is the first in formulating a computational model for evaluating failure wave where both wave and damage diffusion occur in a single computational domain. His group has established a computer test-bed for the first-principle simulation of multi-physics and multiphase interactions involved in impact/blast-resistant design, in collaboration with national labs. Zhen Chen has been very active in promoting international joint research and education by organizing or co-organizing many mini-symposia for professional organizations. Recently, he has co-authored the MPM book to promote the collaboration between the MPM community and other communities in Simulation-Based Engineering Science. The very recent Scott Sloan Best Paper Award represents his contribution to geotechnical engineering in simulating and predicting the natural hazards in the world. In addition, he serves on the editorial boards of five international journals (IJMCE, CMES, CPM, IJDM and IJCM), and many international scientific organizations related to computational mechanics. His current research is focused on modeling and simulating the multiscale phenomena in engineering and life science via both physics-based and data-enabled approaches. Website: https://engineering.missouri.edu/faculty/zhen-chen/ Google: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wdtGwQsAAAAJ&hl=en