Dr Zhen Chen

Personal statement

Dr Zhen Chen, known as George, is the Lecturer in Construction Management, Academic Leader (2018–) of Digital Construction research cluster, Course Director (2020–2023) for MSc Advanced Construction Technologies and BIM, and Convener (2019–2023) of the Departmental Research Ethics Committee in Architecture Department at Strathclyde.

George has enduring specialty interest in construction engineering and management and has professional experiences from serving at companies, organisations and universities around the world. He has developed expertise in engineering and management for the design, construction and operation of the built environment with regard to constructability, dependability and sustainability. Along the way of his journey, the momentum from his family and friends is enormous.

George has engaged in many construction projects in China in 1990s, and worked at various professional positions, including Architect, Building Surveyor, Construction Engineer, Construction Supervisor, Construction/Engineering Consultant, Quantity Surveyor, and Professional Trainer. He was a registered Construction Supervisor working at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport (Phase I, CNY 13bn) construction project in Shanghai from 1996 to 1998, and developed a rule-based Expert System for crack diagnosis in cast-in-place reinforced concrete structures. His algorithm developed for the reliability analysis of retaining structure systems in deep foundation construction has served at the Shanghai Raffles City project in 1997 and the Runyang Yangtze River Bridge project in 2002.

Through collaborations with academic and industry partners, George has secured and managed over £3m worth of research grants in UK and internationally, and is an academic participant to some large EPSRC projects in UK since 2005. He has engaged in more than 80 funded research projects, and made contributions to over 300 academic publications and over 100 plenary lectures and presentations at national and international events. His books “Megaproject Risk Analysis & Simulation: A Dynamic Systems Approach” (2017), “Multicriteria Decision-Making for the Sustainable Built Environment” (2007), “Environmental Management in Construction: A Quantitative Approach” (2006), and “Intelligent Methods for Construction” (1997) are collected at national libraries and academic libraries around the world.

George was an EPSRC funded Senior Research Fellow (2005–2007) for IDCOP (Innovation in Design, Construction and Operation of Building for People) project and CMIPS (Co-ordinated Management of Intelligent Pervasive Spaces) project at the University of Reading. He was a Royal Society funded Visiting Scholar (2011) to ETH Zurich. He was the Management Committee member (2011–2015) of EU COST Action on the Effective Design and Delivery of Megaprojects in the European Union, and the Founder & Leader (2012–2016) of Megaproject Management research group for the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Design funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) at Heriot-Watt University. He serves on technical committees at ADS, ASCE, BSI, CEN, CIBSE, ISO, and TRB. He is the Specialty Chief Editor in Construction Management at Frontiers in Built Environment (Journal Impact Factor 2023: 3.0).