Yan Chen (Chinese: 陈焱) is a Chinese mechanical engineer specializing in reconfigurable mechanisms including rigid origami,[1] metamaterials, and deployable structures.
She is a professor of mechanical engineering at Tianjin University, where she heads the Motion Structure Laboratory.
[3] After working in industry in England for a year, she returned to China in 2005 as an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Nanyang Technological University.
She moved to her present position as a full professor at Tianjin University in 2012.
Chen was named as one of the 2012 New Century Outstanding Talents of the Ministry of Education, and as one of the 2016 Youth Science and Technology Innovation Leaders of the Ministry of Science and Technology.