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Gang Chen (engineer)

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In this Chinese name, the family name is Chen.
The native form of this personal name is Chen Gang. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Gang Chen
陈刚
BornJune 1964 (1964-06) (age 60)
Nanzhang, Hubei, China[2]
Citizenship
Alma mater
Known forNanotechnology
Thermoelectricity
Nanoscale heat transfer
SpouseCai Guohong (蔡国红)[4]
Children2[5]
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsNanotechnology
Heat transfer
Institutions
ThesisMicroscale thermal phenomena in optical and optoelectronic thin-film devices (1993)
Doctoral advisorChang-lin Tien
Doctoral studentsZhiting Tian
Websitemeche.mit.edu/gchen2

Gang Chen (Chinese: 陈刚; pinyin: Chén Gāng) is a Chinese-born American mechanical engineer and nanotechnologist. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he is currently the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering. He served as head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT from July 2013 to June 2018.[6][7] He directs the Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center, an energy frontier research center formerly funded by the United States Department of Energy.[8] He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2010 and of the National Academy of Sciences in 2023.

In January 2021, Chen was charged by the United States Department of Justice under the now abolished China Initiative, for allegedly failing to disclose connections to several Chinese educational programs when submitting a federal grant application.[9] His arrest prompted protests by other academics including MIT's then president Leo Rafael Reif and editorials in the scientific press over the United States government targeting of Chinese American professors.[10][11] One year later, federal prosecutors dropped the charges[12][13] after evidence showed that the disclosures in question were not actually required by the federal government.[14]

Education

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Gang Chen received a Bachelor of Engineering in 1984 and a Master of Engineering in 1987, both in power engineering from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

He received a Doctor of Philosophy in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1993.[15]

Research career

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Chen was an assistant professor at Duke University from 1993 to 1997 and a tenured associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1996 to 2001. He joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001. Chen has made major contributions to thermoelectricity,[16] nanotechnology,[17] and thermal engineering.[18]

In 2022, Chen and a team of colleagues discovered that cubic boron arsenide is a highly effective semiconductor, a discovery with potentially important applications in electronics.[19]

Awards and honors

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Chen is a recipient of the K.C. Wong Education Foundation fellowship and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship (2002-3). He has received the NSF Young Investigator Award, an R&D 100 award (2008), and the ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award (2008). He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 2010, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to heat transfer at the nanoscale and to thermoelectric energy conversion technology.[20] He was elected as an academician of Academia Sinica in the Division of Engineering Science in 2014.[21] In 2014, he also received the Nukiyama Memorial Award of the Heat Transfer Society of Japan.[22] He was elected as a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in April 2018,[23] and of the National Academy of Sciences in 2023.[24]

Federal indictment and ensuing controversy

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On January 14, 2021, Chen was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and charged with failing to disclose alleged connections to several educational programs in China in filing a U.S. Department of Energy grant application, as well as omissions in his IRS filings.[9][25] Chen was charged with failing to report contacts with Chinese entities to the U.S. Department of Energy, leading to an allegation of wire fraud, with failing to file a foreign bank account report (FBAR) in some tax years, and with making false statements on his tax returns. The charge of wire fraud was based on alleged omissions from federal grant proposal form (Current and pending support) that was submitted electronically.

In response to these charges, the President of MIT, L. Rafael Reif wrote to the MIT community stating: "For all of us who know Gang, this news is surprising, deeply distressing and hard to understand."[26] On January 21, 2021, more than 100 MIT Faculty submitted a letter to MIT President Reif, protesting Professor Chen's arrest and citing specific "deeply flawed and misleading statements" in the criminal complaint ending with "we are all Gang Chen".[10] The letter was tweeted next morning.

The FBI documents alleged that Chen received $19 million from China's Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech).[9][25] On January 22, 2021, MIT's president released a second statement pointing out that these funds went to not Chen, but to MIT itself to support a departmental research collaboration with SUSTech which Chen simply directed on MIT's behalf.[27][28]

The indictment provoked strong criticism. Many more MIT faculty signed the protest letter[10][29] questioning merits of the FBI's case and stating: "The defense of Gang Chen is the defense of the scientific enterprise that we all hold dear."[27][30] An opinion article in Bloomberg remarked: "Ever since the Nazis drove Europe’s greatest minds into exile, U.S. science has flourished by attracting talent from overseas."[31] An MIT researcher stated that: "The [Dept. of Justice's] China Initiative fundamentally misunderstands both research and international collaboration."[32]

On January 14, 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors had recommended dropping the criminal charges against Professor Chen.[12] The same day, The Washington Post reported that the DOE forms had not required Chen to disclose his connections to Chinese educational programs, undercutting the basis of the federal charges.[14] On January 20, 2022, federal prosecutors filed a motion to drop the charges "in the interests of justice", and the US District Court dismissed the case.[13]

In a New York Times interview published after his exoneration, Chen described the experience as "traumatic and deeply disillusioning ... 'I didn't do anything wrong'". After the charges were filed he was banned from the MIT campus and from contacting MIT employees. The postdocs he worked with were moved to other labs. He no longer had a research group or funding, and until the charges were dropped he worked alone on other topics. He returned to his MIT office the day after the case was dismissed.[33]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Professor Gang Chen". Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Mechanical Engineering. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
  2. ^ "从荆山迈向世界之巅——美国麻省理工学院华裔教授陈刚求索之路探微". XiangYang No.5 Middle School. Archived from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  3. ^ "In high-profile case against MIT's Gang Chen, prosecutors seeking to drop charges". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 14 January 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  4. ^ "MIT机械工程系教授陈刚：机会给有准备的人". yibada.com. Archived from the original on 2022-01-19. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  5. ^ "MIT机械工程系教授陈刚：机会给有准备的人". yibada.com. Archived from the original on 2022-01-19. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  6. ^ "Gang Chen named head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering". MIT News. Cambridge, MA. 2013-07-23. Archived from the original on 2021-01-21. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  7. ^ "Evelyn Wang named head of Department of Mechanical Engineering". MIT News. Cambridge, MA. 2018-06-22. Archived from the original on 2021-01-20. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  8. ^ "NanoEngineering Group, Mechanical Engineering Department at MIT". Archived from the original on 2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-06.
  9. ^ a b c "MIT Professor Arrested and Charged with Grant Fraud". U.S. Attorney's Office, Massachusetts. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts. 14 January 2021. Archived from the original on 15 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  10. ^ a b c 170 MIT Faculty (26 January 2021). "MIT Faculty Letter to President Reif in Support of Gang Chen". MIT Faculty Newsletter. Archived from the original on 22 March 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ "Selective prosecution of scientists must stop". Nature Physics. 17 (4): 419. 2021. Bibcode:2021NatPh..17..419.. doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01231-1. ISSN 1745-2473.
  12. ^ a b Viswanatha, Aruna (14 January 2022). "Prosecutors Recommend Dropping Case Over China Ties Against MIT Scientist". Wall Street Journal. New York, New York. Archived from the original on 14 January 2022. Retrieved 14 January 2022. Federal prosecutors have recommended that the Justice Department drop criminal charges against a Massachusetts Institute of Technology mechanical engineering professor accused of hiding his China ties, according to people familiar with the matter...
  13. ^ a b Murphy, Shelley (20 January 2022). "Judge grants prosecutors' request to dismiss charges against MIT professor accused of concealing ties with China". The Boston Globe. Boston, MA. Archived from the original on 20 January 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2022. Having assessed the evidence as a whole in light of the information, the government can no longer meet its burden of proof at trial. Dismissal of the indictment is therefore in the interests of justice.
  14. ^ a b Nakashima, Ellen; Nakamura, David (14 January 2022). "In high-profile case against MIT's Gang Chen, prosecutors seeking to drop charges". The Washington Post. Washington DC. Archived from the original on 14 January 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2022. Prosecutors alleged Chen failed to disclose ties to the Chinese government and a technology university in Shenzhen. But when they interviewed MIT grant administrators in early 2021, after the charges were filed, those officials said the application form Chen filled out in 2017 did not require disclosures such as ties to foreign institutions, according to one person.
  15. ^ Chen, Gang (2017-01-01). "Narrative Vitae of GANG CHEN" (PDF). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-12-06. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
  16. ^ Minnich, A. J.; Dresselhaus, M. S.; Ren, Z. F.; Chen, G. (2009). "Bulk nanostructured thermoelectric materials: current research and future prospects". Energy Environ. Sci. 2 (5): 466–479. doi:10.1039/B822664B. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  17. ^ Chen, Gang (1998). "Thermal conductivity and ballistic-phonon transport in the cross-plane direction of superlattices". Phys. Rev. B. 57 (23): 14958–14973. Bibcode:1998PhRvB..5714958C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.57.14958. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  18. ^ Ghasemi, Hadi; Ni, George; Marconnet, Amy Marie; Loomis, James; Yerci, Selcuk; Miljkovic, Nenad; Chen, Gang (21 July 2014). "Solar steam generation by heat localization". Nature Communications. 5: 4449. Bibcode:2014NatCo...5.4449G. doi:10.1038/ncomms5449. PMID 25043613.
  19. ^ "China-born scientist targeted by US 'discovers world's best semiconductor'". South China Morning Post. 16 August 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
  20. ^ "Members of National Academy of Engineering". Archived from the original on 2018-12-07. Retrieved 2018-12-06.
  21. ^ "Academician of Academia Sinica in Division of Engineering Science". Archived from the original on 2018-12-07. Retrieved 2018-12-06.
  22. ^ "The Nukiyama Memorial Award". The Heat Transfer Society of Japan. Archived from the original on 22 February 2020. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  23. ^ "American Academy of Arts and Sciences". Archived from the original on 2011-02-23. Retrieved 2018-12-06.
  24. ^ "Gang Chen". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  25. ^ a b Matthew J. McCarthy (13 January 2021). "Affidavit of Special Agent Matthew J. McCarthy" (PDF). documentcloud.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  26. ^ Reif, Rafael (14 January 2021). "Distressing news about Professor Gang Chen". MIT News. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Archived from the original on 14 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  27. ^ a b Fernandes, Deirdre (22 January 2021). "MIT president and faculty members defend professor arrested for China ties". Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 23 January 2021. These funds are about advancing the work of a group of colleagues, and the research and educational mission of MIT.
  28. ^ O'Leary, Mary Beth (19 June 2018). "MIT and SUSTech announce Centers for Mechanical Engineering Research and Education at MIT and SUSTech". MIT News. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Archived from the original on 15 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  29. ^ "Why Have We, a Group of MIT Faculty, Signed the Letter in Support of Gang Chen?". MIT Faculty Newsletter. 2021-02-27. Archived from the original on 2022-01-22. Retrieved 2022-01-22.
  30. ^ Barry, Ellen (26 January 2021). "A Scientist Is Arrested, and Academics Push Back". The New York Times. New York, New York. Archived from the original on 29 January 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2021. The U.S. is playing into China's hands by prosecuting researchers it ought to be welcoming.
  31. ^ Postrel, Virginia (27 January 2021). "Criminalizing Science Is Really Dumb". Bloomberg. New York, New York. Archived from the original on 4 February 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  32. ^ Larkin, Max (29 January 2021). "MIT Faculty Rally Around Professor Charged With Concealing China Ties". WBUR. Boston, Massachusetts. Archived from the original on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2021. Most of the time, the more you read, the more you understand. In this case, the more I read of that complaint, the less I understood.
  33. ^ Barry, Ellen (24 January 2022). "'In the End, You're Treated Like a Spy,' Says M.I.T. Scientist". The New York Times.
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