Prof Philip Chen, dean and chair professor of the Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, recently was recognised as one of the 2016 Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineers (OECE) by the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at his alma mater, Purdue University. OECE honorees are engineers who represent the finest in their fields; and who embody the spirit of Purdue Engineering, applying a world view to work that has a universal impact.

The award aims to recognise the achievements of Purdue alumni. Prof Chen is the editor-in-chief of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems. He is the first scholar from Macao to be appointed editor-in-chief of an IEEE journal. Former editors-in-chief of this journal include Andrew Sage, a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering (who received the Purdue OECE Award in 2010); Madan Singh, a late chair professor at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom; Donald Brown, William Stansfield Calcott Professor at the University of Virginia, United States; and Witold Pedrycz, professor at the University of Alberta, Canada.

Prof Chen is also an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, and IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, a steering committee member of IEEE Transactions on Big Data, and vice editor-in-chief of the Communications of Chinese Association of Automation (published by the Chinese Association of Automation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences). He was the president of IEEE’s Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (IEEE SMC) for the 2012-2013 period, and now serves as its Senior Past President in charge of Fellow and Awards. He was a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE SMC from 2010 to 2015.