Dr Daniel Chen
Doctor of Philosophy (Structural Engineering), The University of Queensland, Australia
Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow in the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Dr Da (Daniel) Chen is an ARC DECRA fellow and a Lecturer at School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UNSW Sydney.
Daniel was awarded his PhD at the University of Queensland (UQ) in 06/2018. From 06/2018 to 05/2023, he was employed as a postdoctoral researcher at UQ (06/2018-04/2021), Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany (05/2021-05/2022), and the University of Melbourne (05/2022-04/2023). He started his current position at UNSW Sydney from 05/2023 as a Lecturer.
Daniel is best known for his contributions to the development of functionally graded (FG) porous structures, where the constitutive model he proposed is one of the most adopted ways to assess such structural forms. He has 7 Highly Cited Papers (top performing 1%, WoS, 11/2024) in this field, including 1 Hot Paper (top 0.1%, 11/2024). He also published the first book on FG porous structures in 2023, titled: Machine Learning Aided Analysis, Design, and Additive Manufacturing of Functionally Graded Porous Composite Structures. His works have received citations as 3447 in WoS, 3664 in Scopus, and 4052 in Google Scholar, as at 11/2024.
The accumulated amount of research projects he is leading, reaches almost $2 million, including ARC DECRA (Smart Optimisation of Functionally Graded Porous Structures), ARC Linkage (Developing sustainable graded porous cementitious structures), Australian Composites Manufacturing (ACM) CRC-P, and UNSW-SJTU Collaborative Grant, etc.
Daniel is ranked among the top 2% scientists (single-year ranking, Stanford University, 2023 & 2024). He is also a member of Early Career Editorial Board of Structures journal. He was an invited speaker in several conferences and universities.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Lead Chief Investigator
- ARC Linkage Project: Developing Sustainable Graded Porous Cementitious Structures (2025-2028, ~$700k in total), Australian Research Council, Australia
- ARC DECRA: Smart Optimisation of Functionally Graded Porous Structures (2022-2025, $413k), Australian Research Council, Australia
- ACM CRC-P: Manufacturing Automation for Smart Travel Surfboard (2023-2027, ~$700k), Australian Composites Manufacturing (ACM) CRC, Australia
- UNSW-SJTU Collaborative Research Grant (2025), The University of New South Wales, Australia
- Faculty International Seed Grant (2023), The University of New South Wales, Australia
Co-Investigator
- 2024 School Minor Equipment Grants (2024), The University of New South Wales, Australia
- Learning and Teaching Initiatives Grant (2022), The University of Melbourne, Australia
- Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA, 2022) - Australian Research Council, Australia
- ´Future Talent´ Scholarship (2021) - Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
- ´Future Talent´ Guest Stay (2020) - Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
- Dean's Award for Outstanding HDR Theses (2018) - The University of Queensland, Australia
- Civil Engineering Conference Travel Contribution Award (2017) - The University of Queensland, Australia
- Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (2014) - Australian Government, Australia
- UQ Centennial Scholarship (2014) - The University of Queensland, Australia
- Research Higher Degree Top Up Scholarship (2014) - The University of Queensland, Australia
With diverse research experience in Australia and Germany, Daniel has an interdisciplinary knowledge background across structural, material, and mechanical engineering. He is best known for his expertise in the development of functionally graded porous structural components.
Daniel is interested in the following research fields :
- Lightweight multifunctional structural forms
- Architectured materials
- Machine learning aided analysis
- Additive manufacturing
- Offshore structures