Wei-Yin Chen

Professor of Chemical Engineering

(662)915-5651
cmchengs@olemiss.edu

B.S.Ch.E., Tunghai University, 1973
M.S. Applied Mathematics and Statistics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1975
M.S.Ch.E., Polytechnic Institute of New York, 1975
Ph.D., City University of New York, 1982

Faculty member since 1990

This profile of Dr. Chen, by Blair Bannerman, appears in the 2002 issue of the Chemical Engineering Department Newsletter.

Dan Rather stated in his book, The American Dream, "Teaching is patently a labor of love and commitment." For Dr. Wei-Yin Chen, this labor is a joyful task. He left an exciting career in industry to try his hand at teaching and research, and found that he truly loved his students and work even if it can be quite challenging at times.

However, Dr. Chen has not abandoned his work in industry research by any means. He is currently working on projects for the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Dr. Chen's graduate work in both chemical engineering and applied math and statistics allows him to examine many different topics for research and teaching. These efforts have appeared in the leading journals of chemical engineering. Dr Chen has secured over 1.8 million dollars of research funds, mostly through stiff national competitions.

Fossil fuel research, especially coal combustion, has been a prominent topic for Dr. Chen from the time of his graduate studies in New York during the energy crisis to present day. With the supports of the USDOE in the last 15 years, he has pioneered a lignite-based technology for the control of nitrogen oxide during combustion, the impacts of these results have been reflected by the scope of the various follow-up projects currently being conducted around the world including England, Spain, Denmark, China and US.

Another aspect of this research that intrigues Dr. Chen is the quantities and strengths of surface oxides formed with different oxidants during the oxidation of chars immediately after thermal devolatilization in flames. The NSF considers that the topic is of fundamental importance because of it is a missing link in the combustion literature, and its potential benefits to the development of detailed computer codes and to the control of pollutants.

Some of his other research projects involve using stochastic modeling, nonlinear dynamical systems, and other mathematics algorithms to solve chemical, biological and physical problems. Dr. Chen became interested in probability-based algorithms after taking an elective course in statistics through Tunghai University's Business School.

Dr. Chen considers himself a dreamer, and that one of his responsibilities is to convey his dreams to, or make dreams for, the students. When he is not in his combustion lab, Dr. Chen can be found either in the classroom or helping students with their homework in his office. Since he began his teaching career at Ole Miss in 1990, he said that "(he has) enjoyed the academic environment and learned a lot from the students; students are my heros." He is devoted to his students and does his best to make himself available when questions about the challenging subject material arise. Moreover, he would like to see more student participation not only in the research labs but also in various types of national arena in the future. Dr. Chen is able to retain and cultivate a couple of capable students in doctoral research at Ole Miss through his NSF and DOE funded projects; for this, he feels that he is a major beneficiary of the Honors College. He considers the dedication of students a precious source of intellectual products, and, therefore, a potential source of national recognitions and further financial supports.

Dr. Chen has been serving as the chair of the Honors Day committee and the core course committee for Engineering Analysis. He has also been serving as a faculty senator.

After living in many places far and wide, Dr. Chen considers himself finally settled now in Oxford. He arrived in the U.S. in 1973 from Taiwan with only two suitcases and a few dreams. Dr. Chen spent many years in New York doing work for his two masters degrees and his Ph.D. His work in industry brought him to the Gulf Coast and Louisiana. Dr. Chen is happy to continue his family's tradition of teaching at the university level here in the U.S. His grandfather and uncle taught philosophy and civil engineering, respectively, at universities in Taiwan and China. Dr. Chen's wife, Tsuei-Ju, has supported him throughout all his career advances over the years.

His present research activities cover two major areas: combustion and mathematical modeling.

A number of graduate students have been involved in these efforts. Photos of Dr. Chen's working group (page may load slowly) show the contributors.

Representative Publications

Course Materials

1. Chen, W.Y, "Study Guide for Engineering Mathematics," University of Mississippi, 1998.
2. Chen, W.Y, "Study Guide for Thermodynamics," University of Mississippi, 1999.
3. Chen, W.Y, "Study Guide for Reaction Engineering," University of Mississippi, 1998.
4. Chen, W.Y, "Study Guide for Nonlinear Science I. Perturbation Methods and Methods of Weighted Residuals," University of Mississippi, 2000.

Representative Publications

1. Chen, W.Y, "Stochastic Processes," in “ Encyclopedia of Nonlinear Science ,” A. Scott ed., pp.881-883, Routledge, Taylor Francis, London, England (2005).
2. Chen, W.Y., and S. Bokka, “Stochastic Modeling of Nonlinear Epidemiology,” Journal of Theoretical Biology , 234 (4), 455-470 (2005).
3. Chen, W.Y., and L. Tang, "Variables, Kinetics and Mechanisms of Heterogeneous Reburning," AIChE Journal, 47(12), 2781-2797 (2001).
4. Chen, W.Y., A.U. Kulkarni, J.L. Milum, and L.T. Fan, "Stochastic Modeling of Carbon Oxidation," AIChE Journal, 45(12), 2557-2570 (1999).
5. Chen, W.Y., "Rate Measurement with a Laboratory-Scale Tubular Reactor," Chemical Engineering Education, 33(3), 238-243 (1999).
6. Tang, L., and W.Y. Chen, "Improvements on A Particle Feeder for Experiments Requiring Steady and Low Feed Rates," Review of Scientific Instruments, 70(7), 3143-3144 (1999).
7. Chen, X.Y., W.Y. Chen, A.H. Hikal, B.C. Shen, and L.T. Fan, "Stochastic Modeling of Controlled Drug Release," Biochemical Engineering Journal, 2(2), 161-177 (1998).
8. Chen, W.Y., and L. Ma, "Extent of Heterogeneous Mechanisms during Reburning of Nitrogen Oxide," AIChE Journal, 42(7), 1968-1976 (1996).
9. Additional Publications

Related Links
CH E Research Areas
Combustion
Nonlinear Science
Publications -- Wei-Yin Chen

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