After three years of master's degree, Chen's "one year of ultra-high vacuum leak detection" brought a considerable master's thesis: "Atomic probe for hydride precipitation phase-field ion microscope research". This paper attracted the attention of Guo Kexin, a tutor, and was highly recognized by internationally renowned surface physicists, field ion microscope research authorities, Professor Zheng Tianzuo from the Department of Physics of Pennsylvania State University and Professor Norden from Sweden, and even called it a genius.
From 65438 to 0986, Chen successfully completed his master's degree and stayed at the Institute of Metals, Chinese Academy of Sciences to study the surface and interface of materials. From 65438 to 0987, at the invitation of Professor Zheng Tianzuo, he came to the field emission microscope laboratory of Pennsylvania State University in the United States as a visiting scholar to study the surface physics of materials. 1In the autumn of 990, Chen entered the Institute of Materials of Pennsylvania State University, a first-class institute of materials in the United States, and was admitted as a doctoral student without exception. He studied under Professor Zheng Tianzuo, an internationally renowned surface physicist, and Professor messier, an internationally renowned master of thin film materials and director of materials research institute.
In the following years, Chen was awarded the "Outstanding Research Achievement Award" by the American Vacuum Society (1992) and the American Xerox Company (1994). 1in March, 1994, his doctoral thesis was considered as the best example in recent ten years by the Degree Committee of the Institute of Materials of the University of Pennsylvania. The discovery of his doctoral thesis "Surface Atomic Displacement Diffusion Mechanism" caused a sensation in the field of surface science. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Science and News and other major American newspapers reported that Chen was invited to give special reports at various international academic conferences for more than 20 times.
Chen's special contribution to the study of material surface physics has made him famous in the American and even international physics circles, and several universities such as Bell Laboratories and IBM Laboratories want to hire him. At the same time, he won the world-famous LosAlamos National Laboratory Director's Research Fund Award, and came to the birthplace of the world's first atomic bomb to engage in postdoctoral research in materials physics, for 1994. More than two years later, at the invitation of an academician of the American Academy of Sciences and an internationally renowned superconducting scientist professor, Chen joined the Texas Superconducting Center and the Physics Department of the University of Houston. As an academic leader, he initiated the research on oxide thin film materials and interfaces in the center, and led his research team to achieve a series of international leading achievements in the research of ferroelectric thin film materials in just a few years, becoming an internationally renowned ferroelectric thin film material laboratory. In 2005, Chen came to the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he is now, and presided over the multifunctional materials and interface engineering laboratory.
Today, Chen has published more than 100 papers in world-class magazines and made more than 150 special reports at different international conferences, and two achievements have been selected for magazine cover. Summarizing and reviewing the academic achievements since he left Huada for 26 years, Chen is quite modest: "Little achievements, great achievements. I can only say that I am ok in my field. " He especially thanked his alma mater, Huaqiao University, and said, "Huada has not only achieved me, but also found my goal in life-material physics."