Prior to joining UCSC, he held a faculty position at University of California Merced with a joint appointment with School of Engineering and School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. He is also affiliated with UCE3 (University of California Center for Energy and Environmental Economics). Professor Chen's main research focuses on studying the impact of public policies on energy, water resources and transportation sectors. His research takes interdisciplinary approaches: quantitative models built upon economic principles and solved with operations research techniques. His work has received a number of INFORMS ENRE awards: 2004 best student paper (first place), 2013 and 2014 best publication in sustainability in second place and first place, respectively.