De Chen

De Chen (born October 20, 1962 in China) is the professor in catalysis at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) since 2001 (associate professor 1998-2001). He earned his MSc in chemical reaction engineering at the East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China, in 1988, and his PhD in industrial catalysis at NTNU, Norway, in 1998. He was a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley (2009-2010) and East China University of Science and Technology (2017-2018). 

Chen is known for his research by a multiscale approach at the interface between catalysis science and industrial chemical processes. During his entire career, Professor De Chen has made significant contributions to catalyst rational design, natural gas catalytic conversion, new research methods for redox reaction cycles in industrial catalytic processes. Different from the traditional "trial and error" method, he has been working hard to effectively combine the first-principles calculation, experimental studies such as advanced catalyst synthesis and characterization, operando kinetic study and kinetic, reactor and process modeling and simulation together to solve the key problems in chemical process and new energy technologies. His work on combined theoretic and experimental heterogeneous catalysis has in several instances led to the development of new ideas for catalysts for gas to liquids, monomer production for polyvinyl chloride (PVC), biomass to liquids, natural gas to olefins, hydrogen production and fuels, as well as materials for CO₂ capture technologies and energy storages.  

He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Science. He is also a member of European Kinetic Networks, a leader group at the SFI center of industrial Catalysis Science and Innovation (iCSI), and FME center of biomass for fuels (Bio4Fuels). He well-published more than 300 scientific papers in pre-reviewed journals (citations more than 12000, H-index:61, and 45 since 2015, source: Google Scholar) and more than 10 patents.