Dr. Chen received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mining Engineering from Xi'an Mining Institute, China and his Ph.D. in Mining Engineering from West Virginia University in 1999. He has been a college lecturer in China and a visiting scholar in England specializing in teaching mine ground control and underground mining methods.

Dr. Chen was employed by Keystone Mining Services as a Senior Ground Control Engineer in 1999. In 2006, Dr. Chen was promoted to Vice-President Engineering.

Throughout his career in mining, Dr. Chen has conducted many ground control projects including roof control design, pillar design, subsidence prediction, stress analysis, etc. He has developed many state of the art computer modeling techniques including finite element analysis that have been proven in the field to be very accurate.

Dr. Chen has authored numerous articles and technical reports and is recognized as an international expert in mine ground control.