| Chen Chunying | |
| Birth Place: | Changchun, Jilin, China |
| Workplaces: | Chinese Academy of Sciences National Center for Nanoscience and Technology Karolinska Institute |
| Alma Mater: | Huazhong University of Science and Technology |
Chen Chunying (; born June 1969) is a Chinese chemist who is a professor at the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology. Her research considers nanoscale biological interactions. She was awarded the 2021 Royal Society of Chemistry Environment, Sustainability and Energy Award. She is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Chen was born in Changchun, Jilin province in Northeast China. Her parents were both chemists, and she spent part of her childhood in a science laboratory.[1] She was an undergraduate student at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.[2] She remained at Huazhong for her doctoral research. After graduating she moved to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where she spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2001 she was appointed to the Karolinska Institute.[3]
In 2002, Chen returned to China, first as a group leader then as a professor at the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology.[4] In 2011, she discovered that carbon nanotubes can absorb proteins in the blood, which was the first indication that it is possible to reduce the toxicity of carbon nanotubes.[5] She studied the interface between proteins and nanomaterials and developed sensitive characterisation techniques to study their chemical transformation.[6]