Personal statement

Dr Zhen Chen, known as George, serves as Lecturer in Construction Management, Academic Leader (2018–) for Digital Construction research unit, Supervisor for PhD students, 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 built environment and has professional experiences from serving at companies, organisations and universities around the world. He has developed expertise in engineering and management for Design, Construction and Operation 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 project (Phase I, CNY 13bn) in Shanghai from 1996 to 1998, and developed a rule-based Expert System for crack diagnosis for cast-in-place reinforced concrete structures. His algorithm developed for the reliability analysis of retaining structure systems in deep foundation construction has worked for 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 funded 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 including 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, academic libraries, and special 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 and Siemens Building Technologies in Switzerland for innovative research into intelligent buildings. 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 team at Heriot-Watt University for the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Design funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE). His study on Megaproject Management continues at Strathclyde. He serves on technical committees at ADS, ASCE, BSI, CEN, CIBSE, IPMA, ISO, and TRB. He is the Specialty Chief Editor in Construction Management at Frontiers in Built Environment (Journal Impact Factor 2023: 3.0).

George is the coordinator of four LinkedIn groups, including AI in Built Environment, Frontiers in Construction Management, Frontiers in Digital Construction, and Post-Disaster Damage & Needs Assessment to promote professional excellence.

Research Legacies

Digital Construction

Construction Management 

Megaproject Management

Online Records (as at 11/11/2023)

Frontiers Loop: 159869 (44,615 total views)

Google Scholar: Zhen Chen (H-Index 25)

LinkedIn: Zhen Chen (16,278 followers)

ORCID: 0000-0003-0212-1140

PURE: Zhen Chen (H-Index 17)

ResearchGate: Zhen Chen (58,091 total reads; H-Index 21)

ResearcherID: C-1587-2010 (H-Index 16)

Scopus Author ID: 7409488596 (H-Index 17)