Education
Ph.D., Lehigh University (2004)
Research
- Experimental Condensed Matter, Disordered Materials
- Gao Research Group
Member
Personal Profile
Gang Chen is a native of Southern China, where he received his undergraduate education at the University of Science and Technology of China. He went to the graduate school at Lehigh University in 2000 and completed his Ph.D. there. Thereafter, he held a postdoctoral position at the Argonne National Laboratory before joining the faculty at Ohio University in 2007.
Gang Chen is a condensed matter experimentalist. His research is aimed at understanding the structure-property relations in disordered material systems.
An example of disordered material is glass, widely used for windows, in optical fibers, and even in DVDs. Because of its disordered nature, glass has a complex structure that requires sophisticated characterization techniques. Chen uses brilliant X-rays generated by relativistic electrons from synchrotron radiation to study atomic and nanoscale structures of disordered materials. For his research, he utilizes the synchrotron x-ray facilities at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.
Currently, Chen is building an X-ray scattering device at Ohio University. When this system is completed, he will be well poised to study disordered materials that hold great promise to relieve the global energy crisis.
Chen believes that the most effective way of teaching is to help students develop their own conceptual tools to solve complex problems. He encourages students to make mistakes, because that is a very efficient way of learning. "After you know why you were wrong, you understand the problem," Chen says.
Chen's favorite quote: "I know the price of success: dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen," by Frank Lloyd Wright. When Chen takes a break from work, he plays basketball, takes photographs, and enjoys music.