Dr. Chen received his B.S. degree in Optical Science and Engineering from Zhejiang University, China in 2013, and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Brown University in 2018. He then became a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Princeton University in 2018-2021, working on developing multiplexed quantum network nodes using single erbium ions. Dr. Chen joins Rice University in July 2021, as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and as part of the Rice University Quantum Initiative.

Dr. Chen’s research focuses on quantum information processing using solid-state spins. Efficient spin-photon interfaces combined with the solid-state device engineering, enable optically interfaced solid-state spins as promising platforms for quantum communication, computing, and sensing applications. Dr. Chen’s group explores methods to gain control over defect spin systems in silicon with telecom optical interfaces towards building scalable quantum networks. Exploiting mature silicon photonics and device technologies, his group aims to build large-scale hybrid integrated silicon quantum chips, which can be deployed in distributed quantum nodes. These chips incorporate spin-based multiplexed quantum registers and repeaters with silicon photonic circuits, reconfigurable photonic elements, single photon detectors and other related quantum optical components to realize on-chip quantum information processing.