Chen led an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Texas A&M, Penn State, Virginia Tech, MIT and the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute in using applied mathematics and computational fluid dynamics to conduct computer simulations of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370’s presumed descent into the ocean.
[1] In a paper published in April 2015, they concluded that the most likely scenario was that the plane entered the water at a vertical or steep angle, based on the lack of floating debris or oil spills.
[2][3][4] This finding was deemed a top math story of 2015 by the American Mathematical Society after widespread media coverage.
[5] Chen collaborated with Theodore Postol on an analysis of the April 4, 2017, chemical attack on Khan Shaykhun, Syria.
[7][8] In 2019, Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had appointed Chen to an international team of experts investigating the April 10, 2010, crash of a Polish Air Force jet near Smolensk, Russia, in which Polish president Lech Kaczyński was killed.