Mingwei Chen, a professor of materials science and engineering, studies the relationship between structure and properties of advanced materials, particularly non-equilibrium and nanostructured materials. His pioneering contributions to materials research—including twinning in nanocrystalline aluminum, the development of angstrom beam electron diffraction for local structure of amorphous materials, and applications of nanoporous metals for energy storage—have earned international recognition. He has received a number of awards and honors in his career, including the Paul A. Siple Memorial Award from the U.S. Army (2006), the Outstanding Overseas Chinese Scientist Award from the China Academy of Sciences (2010), and a Highly Cited Researchers Award from Thomson Reuters (2014).
Chen is an affiliate of the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute. Before joining Johns Hopkins in 2017, he was a professor at Tohoku University (Japan) and principal investigator and division leader of the Advanced Institute for Materials Research.
He received his bachelor’s degree in Physical Metallurgy from China University of Mining and Technology (1988), his master’s degree in Materials from Taiyuan University of Technology (1991), and his PhD in Materials Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (1995). He conducted postdoctoral research at the Naval Postgraduate School and Johns Hopkins University.