Tao Chen

I am a computational and data scientist, working on digital technologies for chemical engineering applications. These include computer modelling of chemical processes using multiscale mechanisms and machine learning, as well as model-based chemical product design and process optimisation. Hence my work can be broadly viewed as 'Digital Chemical Engineering'.

Our activities cut across both methodological research (new computational and systems engineering methods) and applications. We have used computational approaches to help address product design and process operation challenges in areas of pharmaceuticals, healthcare, cosmetics, food, agrochemicals, water processing, steelmaking, amongst others, partnering with industry through collaborative research and R&D consultancy. I currently lead a group of 8 doctoral and 2 postdoctoral researchers. I have been teaching small (ca. 10 students) and large (270+) classes, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

I hold the title of Professor of Digital Chemical Engineering. I trained as a control engineer with BEng (2000) and MEng (2002) degrees both from Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, China, and PhD (Chemical Engineering / Process Systems Engineering) from Newcastle University in 2006, UK. Prior to joining University of Surrey in 2011 as Lecturer, I worked as Research Associate at Newcastle University (2006-2007), then Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2008-2010).