Professor Guanrong Chen is a distinguished scholar and global leader in nonlinear systems theory and complex networks research. Born in Guangzhou, China in 1948, he overcame significant educational disruptions during the Cultural Revolution through dedicated self-study before gaining admission to Sun Yat-sen University's graduate program in 1978. He completed his Master's degree in computational mathematics in 1981 and subsequently earned his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Texas A&M University in 1987. Following academic appointments at Rice University and the University of Houston where he became a tenured full professor, he has served as the Shun Hing Education and Charity Fund Chair Professor in Engineering at City University of Hong Kong since 2000, where he also founded and directs the Centre for Complexity and Complex Networks.
Professor Chen has made seminal contributions to chaos theory and bifurcation analysis, most notably through the development of the Chen attractor, a fundamental concept in dynamical systems that bears his name and has become a standard reference in nonlinear dynamics. His pioneering research on controlling chaotic systems established foundational frameworks that have enabled significant advances across engineering and physical sciences applications. His theoretical insights have provided critical tools for understanding complex phenomena in diverse fields from secure communications to biological systems, resulting in sustained recognition as a Highly Cited Researcher in Engineering for over a decade. His scholarship has profoundly shaped the trajectory of complexity science through rigorous mathematical formulations that bridge theoretical principles with practical implementations.
Beyond his research achievements, Professor Chen has significantly influenced the global scientific community through his editorial leadership as editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos and through extensive mentorship of emerging scholars. He has received numerous prestigious honors including election as IEEE Fellow in 1997 for fundamental contributions to chaos control and bifurcation analysis, membership in the Academia Europaea in 2014, and Fellowship in The World Academy of Sciences in 2015. His contributions have been further recognized with multiple State Natural Science Awards of China and international honors such as the Euler Gold Medal from Russia. As an active researcher and thought leader, he continues to advance the frontiers of complex systems theory while guiding the next generation of scientists in this rapidly evolving interdisciplinary field.
