Wei Chen Named Fellow of Society of Mechanical Engineers

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Wei Chen, professor of mechanical engineering at Northwestern University, has been named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for significant achievements and contributions to the engineering profession.

The fellow grade is the highest elected grade of membership in ASME. Fellowship is conferred upon a member with at least 10 years of active engineering practice.

Chen has made significant contributions to the field of theoretical and computational engineering design. At Northwestern, she established the Integrated Design Automation Laboratory -- an active research program created to develop rational design methods based on mathematical optimization techniques and statistical methods for use in complex design and manufacturing problems.

Chen received the Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the Faculty Early Career Award from the National Science Foundation and the Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal from ASME. She is a member of SAE International and an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Author of more than 70 refereed journal papers, Chen is a review editor of Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization and an associate editor of the Journal of Engineering Optimization. She served as the chair and member of the ASME Design Automation Executive Committee (2002-2007) and was an associate editor of the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design (2003-2006). She is serving as an executive committee member of the ASME Design Division.

ASME helps the global engineering community develop solutions to real-world challenges. Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development across all engineering disciplines.

(Andrea Albers, newsroom assistant, media relations, contributed to this story.)