Dr. Huan Chen earned her doctoral degree in Environmental Sciences from FAMU school of the environment in 2012 under professor Henry Neal Williams. Currently, Dr. Chen is a research faculty at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHFML) at the Florida State University (FSU).
For the past nine years, she has worked as an analytical chemist at the Ion Cyclotron User Facility, applying advanced analytical techniques to analyze complex environmental systems. Her research areas have ranged from oil deposits in the environment to biofuels, dissolved organic matter, and predatory bacteria.
As a graduate from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), she has a personal and professional goal to facilitate and encourage the participation of minority students and faculty in interdisciplinary, cutting-edge research and improving the diversity in the workplace.
Huan has given seminars to recruit minority students for involvement in research experiences and activities available at the NHMFL and actively engaged faculty and upper-level administration at several HBCUs.
In her efforts to improve diversity in the STEM fields, she has six joint grants with HBCU faculty and directly supervised, mentored, and trained 16 underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students.
Her most recent accomplishment includes two Excellence in Research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in collaboration with faculty from Morgan State University and FAMU and the FSU 2020 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Service Award.