Yong P. Chen is a physicist and engineer known for his work in quantum materials, nanoscience, and quantum technologies. He holds the position of Karl Lark-Horovitz Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. He served as the inaugural Director of the Purdue Quantum Science and Engineering Institute from 2019 to 2025. [1]
Chen joined Purdue University in 2007 as the Miller Family Assistant Professor of Nanoscience and Physics. He advanced to Associate Professor (2012–2016) and later full Professor in 2016 with joint appointments in Physics, Astronomy, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. [1] He served as Associate Director for Research at Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center (2018–2019) [2] and became Director of PQSEI in 2019. [3]
Internationally, he holds a Villum Investigator position at Aarhus University, Denmark (2019–2025), [4] and was a Principal Investigator at Tohoku University’s Advanced Institute for Materials Research (2017–present). [5] He also held visiting roles at the Macau University of Science and Technology (2020–2024) and co-founded Quanta LLC, a quantum technology company (2020–2023).