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Structural engineering, Civil engineering, Composite and hybrid materials

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Structural metal products

Civil Construction Design

Biography

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...view more

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 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.

My Grants

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

My Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy (Structural Engineering), The University of Queensland, Australia

My Awards

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

My Research Activities

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

My Research Supervision

Areas of supervision

Essential criteria:
1. Bachelor or Master degree in Engineering;
2. Minimum GPA of 90/100;
3. For international applicants, meeting the English language test requirements: IELTS 6.5 overall (min. 6.0 in each subtest); TOFEL iBT 90 overall (min. 23 in writing, 22 in reading, listening and speaking); PTE 64 overall (min. 54 in each subtest);
4. Sufficient knowledge in structures, materials, and mechanics;
5. Interests in the development of novel lightweight composite structural forms by means of computational mechanics, deep learning, additive manufacturing, and/or mechanical tests.
* Qualified candidates residing in Australia are encouraged to apply.
** Research experience and track record will be advantageous.

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