Nanyang Assistant Professor Yi-Sheng (Eason) Chen

Biographical Information
Dr Yi-Sheng (Eason) Chen is a Nanyang Assistant Professor (NAP) and Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF) Fellow. His research group focus on materials characterisation, metallurgy, and hydrogen technologies. He specialises in using advanced microscopy techniques such as atom probe tomography (APT) and electron microscopes to develop the structure-property-processing relationship of materials. His research pursuits involve the development of advanced workflows to facilitate microscopic observations under extreme conditions, including high or fast load, corrosive or reactive environments, and low or high temperatures. The insights gained from these endeavours will contribute to a deeper understanding of material behaviour, paving the way for the development of next-generation high-performance materials.

Before he joined NTU, he was a group leader, an Australian Research Council Fellow, and a University of Sydney Fellow at the Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis and the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Sydney, Australia. At the University of Sydney, he established a 3-million-US-dollar research program around using advanced microscopes to observe hydrogen atoms in steels for developing solutions against hydrogen embrittlement problems. He also initiated the Taiwan-University of Sydney Scholarship and the Taiwan Scholar Association of Australia (TSAA) both in 2020. 

Before moving to Australia, Eason completed his PhD in Materials in 2018 at the University of Oxford. Before PhD, he served in consulting industry for several years after he completed his Master in Materials Science in 2009 and Bachelor in Materials Science in 2007 at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan.

For more information, please see: 
Current Research Interests

Materials characterisation, advanced microscopy, metallurgy, hydrogen embrittlement, additive manufacturing, nanomaterials, electron microscopy, atom probe tomography.

Selected Publications
Peer-reviewed Journal Papers

  1. Y.-S. Chen and J. M. Cairney* et al. ‘Observation of hydrogen trapping at dislocations, grain boundaries, and precipitates’ Science 367 (2020) 171-175
    https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aaz0122
  2. Y.-S. Chen and M. P. Moody et al. ‘Direct observation of individual hydrogen atoms at trapping sites in a ferritic steel’ Science 355 (2017) 1196-1199
    https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aal2418.1126/science.aal2418
  3. P.-Y. Liu and Y.-S. Chen* et al. ‘Engineering metal-carbide hydrogen traps in steels’ Nature Communications 15 (2024) 724
    https://www.nature.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45017-4
  4. Y.-S. Chen*, M. J. Griffith, and J. M. Cairney ’Cryo Atom Probe: Freezing atoms in place for 3D mapping’ Nano Today 37 (2021) 101107
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1748013221000323
  5. D. S. Mosiman and Y.-S. Chen* et al. ‘Atom Probe Tomography of Encapsulated Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles’ Small Methods 5 (2021) 202000692
    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/smtd.202000692.202000692
  6. Y. Liu and Y.-S. Chen et al. ‘Manufacturing of high strength and high conductivity copper with laser powder bed fusion’ Nature Communications 15 (2024) 1283
    https://www.nature.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45732-y
  7. J. Banhart* and Y.-S. Chen et al.’ Direct ageing experiments on nanometre-scale aluminium alloy samples’ Acta Materialia 231 (2022) 117848
    https://www.sciencedirect.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359645422002348
  8. Y.-S. Chen* and D. Haley et al. ‘Observing hydrogen in steel using cryogenic atom probe tomography: A simplified approach’ International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 44 (2019) 32280-32291
    https://www.sciencedirect.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360319919337085
  9. Y.-S. Chen* et al. ‘Atom probe tomography for the observation of hydrogen in materials: a review’ Microscopy and Microanalysis 1 (2022) 1-15
    https://academic.oup.https://academic.oup.com/mam/article/29/1/1/6927140
  10. Y.-S. Chen* and J. M. Cairney et al. ‘Hydrogen Trapping and Embrittlement in Metals – A Review’ International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2024) (in print)

Public media outlets

  1. SBS World News (Australia national TV program), ‘What is hydrogen and how is it key to Australia's green future?’ https://bit.ly/3W4HHeG
  2. University of Sydney news:
    - ‘Four ARC Early Career Industry Fellowships’, https://bit.ly/41sjAaZ
    - ‘Alloys for hydrogen economy’, https://bit.ly/3i9DA0S
    - ‘Fellowships awarded to outstanding ECRs’, https://bit.ly/3i714ky
    - ‘What you need to know about hydrogen energy’, https://bit.ly/3lVxoYF
    - ‘New funding laying foundation for hydrogen-resistant steels’, https://bit.ly/3lXlFsF
    - ‘Preparing for the hydrogen economy’, https://bit.ly/3CZYl4D
    - ‘Researchers closer to understanding hydrogen's great challenge’, https://bit.ly/4cgdEIK
  3. AAAS (Publisher of Science journal):
    - ‘Next-gen steel under the microscope’, https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/689314
    - ‘Preparing for the hydrogen economy’, https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/805305
  4. Renew Economy: ‘Hydrogen could be the future of energy – but there’s one big road block’, https://bit.ly/3kFPVsx
  5. Materials Today: ‘Spotting trapped hydrogen settles embrittlement debate’, https://bit.ly/3ER3Q7i
  6. SBS Australia: https://www.sbs.com.au/chinese/english/audio/_3242
  7. Microscopy Australia: https://bit.ly/3kIdu4d
  8. American Chemical Society: https://bit.ly/3o4qLGj
  9. Wiley: https://bit.ly/3lXayjB
  10. Phys.org: https://bit.ly/3AKvY9y
  11. Ametek: https://bit.ly/3F1m4Dl
  12. Create: https://bit.ly/3i7VQF5
  13. CAMECA: https://bit.ly/3zFpp78
  14. Engineering Materials: https://bit.ly/39FmKjb
  15. Science Breaker: https://doi.org/10.25250/thescbr.brk380
  16. ETH Zürich: https://bit.ly/3i5BtbR


Openings for PhD Students and Research Fellows

Eason's group is constantly looking for research collaborations and motivated PhD candidates, visiting research fellows, undergraduate/master research students, and postdoctoral researchers to join his group at NTU MSE. Current active projects include: 

  • "Embrittlement-tolerant alloys for safe hydrogen transmission and storage", Singapore National Research Foundation Fellowship, 2024 - 2029