Qin Jim Chen
Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Professor, Marine and Environmental Sciences
Office
- 471 SN
- 617.373.5465
Research Focus
Coastal engineering and science, particularly in the development and application of state-of-the-art numerical models to address coastal resiliency and sustainability
Education
- Ph.D. Civil Engineering, Old Dominion University in collaboration with Danish Hydraulic Institute
- M.Sc. Coastal and Ocean Engineering, Hohai University, China
- B.Sc. Civil Engineering, Hohai University, China
Honors & Awards
- 2022 Søren Buus Outstanding Research Award
- James M. Todd Technological Accomplishment Medal, LES-BTR
- Best Paper Award, Louisiana Association of Professional Biologists
- LSU Rainmakers Award for Innovative Research
- National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2006
Research Overview
Coastal engineering and science, particularly in the development and application of state-of-the-art numerical models to address coastal resiliency and sustainability
Selected Research Projects
- Integrated Numerical Modeling and Field Observations of Hurricane Impacts to Natural and Hybrid Infrastructure
- Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Collaborative Research: Morphodynamic simulations of coastal storms and overwash to characterize back-barrier lake stratigraphies
- – Co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Coupling CSHORE and Aeolis/Duna to Model Co-Evolution of Nearshore-Beach-Dune Systems: Caminada Headlands, Louisiana and Duck, North Carolina
- – Principal Investigator, U.S. Army Corps of Engineer, Engineering Research and Development Center
Research Centers and Institutes
- Institute for Experiential AI, affiliated
- Coastal Sustainability Institute, affiliated
- GRI, affiliated
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- Johnson, C.L., Chen, Q., Ozdemir, C.E., Xu, K., McCall, R., and Nederhoff, K. (2021). Morphodynamic Modeling of a Low-Lying Barrier Subject to Hurricane Forcing: The Role of Backbarrier Wetlands. Coastal Engineering, 167, 103886.1
- Chen, X., Chen, Q., Chen, Z., Cai, S., Zhuo, X., and Lv, J. (2021). Numerical Modeling of the Interaction between Submerged Floating Tunnel and Surface Waves, Ocean Engineering, 220:108494
- L. Zhu, Q. Chen, H. Wang, W. Capurso, L. Niemoczynski, K. Hu, G. Snedden, Field Observations of Wind Waves in Upper Delaware Bay with Living Shorelines, Estuaries and Coasts, 43, 2020, 739-755
- C. Johnson, Q. Chen, C. Ozdemir, Lidar Time-Series Analysis of a Rapidly Transgressing Low-Lying Mainland Barrier (Caminada Headlands, Louisiana, USA), Geomorphology, 352, 2020, 106979
- L. Zhu, Q. Chen, Phase-Averaged Drag Force of Nonlinear Waves Over Submerged and Through Emergent Vegetation, Journal of Geophysical Research–Oceans, 124, 2019
Nov 02, 2022
2022 Stanford University Annual Assessment of Author Citations
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2 percent of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The selection is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above. The list below includes […]
Apr 15, 2022
Faculty and Staff Awards 2022
Congratulations to all the winners of the faculty and staff awards, and to everyone for their hard work and dedication during the 2021-2022 academic school year.

Mar 08, 2022
Modeling Data from Hurricane Impacts to Natural and Hybrid Infrastructure
CEE/MES Qin Jim Chen, in collaboration with Navid Jafari from Louisiana State University, is leading a $765k NSF grant for “Integrated Numerical Modeling and Field Observations of Hurricane Impacts to Natural and Hybrid Infrastructure.”
Dec 23, 2021
COE Professors Selected in Stanford University List of Top 2% Scientists Worldwide
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2 percent of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The selection is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above. The list below includes […]

Sep 02, 2021
Tracking Hurricane Data to Minimize Flooding Damage
CEE/MES Qin Jim Chen is working with the Nearshore Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association to track hurricane storm data for use in building better levees and infrastructure to minimize flooding damage.

Apr 28, 2021
Designing Storm Strength Simulations to Predict and Mitigate Coastal Flooding
MES/CEE Assistant Professor Samuel Muñoz and CEE/MES Professor Qin Jim Chen, in collaboration with Jeffrey Donnelly from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, were awarded a $590K NSF grant for “Morphodynamic simulations of coastal storms and overwash to characterize back-barrier lake stratigraphies.”

Aug 28, 2020
Defending Against Mother Nature
While Hurricane Laura was the strongest storm to hit Louisiana in 160 years, CEE Professor Qin Jim Chen worked with local officials to best prepare for and predict the damage caused by the storm.

Jan 30, 2019
Wind and Waves- Lessons in Resiliency from Hurricane Hydrodynamics
CEE/COS Professor Jim Chen and his Coastal Hydrodynamics Lab are studying the development and application of state-of-the-art computational models to address coastal resiliency and sustainability.

Jan 03, 2019
Chen to Lead Grant in Creating Sustainable Deltaic Coasts
CEE/COS Professor Qin Jim Chen is leading a $866K CyberSEES NSF grant, in collaboration with Louisiana State University and Texas A&M University, for “A Coastal Resilience Collaboratory: Cyber-enabled Discoveries for Sustainable Deltaic Coasts”.
May 21, 2018
2018 GRI Seed Grant Awardees
Congratulations to the four COE teams out of eight total receiving 2018 Seed Grant funding from the Global Resilience Institute (GRI). The resilience project topics range from coastal flooding prediction to combating opioid addiction. This year’s pool of proposals was particularly robust, with submissions demonstrating both strengths in their interdisciplinary approaches and in their promise […]