Tian Chen, PhD Civil Engineering
Tian Chen won 'Best Contribution to Internationalisation 2019/20' at the Manchester Doctoral College Excellence Awards.
Tian has enhanced the international visibility of his department, and has facilitated strategic collaborations between the University and the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre and the China University of Mining and Technology.
“I served as the ambassador of MACE internationalisation team to officially visit top Chinese universities. I played an important role in helping MACE to build the relationship with top Chinese universities including The China University of Mining and Technology, Tongji University and Zhejiang University, of which my subject area is particularly excellent.”
“I was also able to form a long-standing collaboration with a European research institution (the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre) with the help of this team. Journal papers have been published with above organisations in the top reputable journals in the Geotechnical Engineering field including Géotechnique and Engineering Geology.”
“We are connecting each other to build an effective network to contribute our own strengths, thereby creating more cutting-edged research outcomes.”
Tian Chen / PhD Civil Engineering
“Tian’s contribution to internationalisation has enabled us to foster strategic research collaborations with two top institutes in Belgium and China," says Majid Sedighi, Senior Lecturer in Geoenvironmental Engineering and Director of Internationalisation.
"He has been key in establishing new research collaborations between the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering and China University of Mining and Technology; a top institute in China. His collaborative research has resulted in high-quality outputs which are exemplary and his dedication to promoting The University of Manchester in his home country, China, is particularly noteworthy.”
“International co-operation is helpful for not only the department’s and University’s long-term development but for my personal research and career," says Tian.
"Both communication skills and networking are key to achieving great success in future work.”
“The most interesting part of being a postgraduate research student is that I get accustomed to learning new things. Learning is part of my daily life, which makes me fearless to explore unknowns. For example, to accomplish my research over my PhD study, I have learned five different programming languages, being professional in three of them.”