F. Frank Chen, Ph.D.
Lutcher Brown Distinguished Chair in Mechanical Engineering
The Lutcher Distinguished Chair in Mechanical Engineering was established in 2004. In 2003, former UTSA President Ricardo Romo pledged $7 million of the endowment’s corpus to fund seven Lutcher Brown Distinguished Chairs that has provided a perpetual source of funding to support the holder’s research and teaching activities.

F. Frank Chen, Ph.D.

Lutcher Brown Distinguished Chair in Mechanical Engineering

Professor, Mechanical Engineering

F. Frank Chen has enjoyed professional success in academia and industry. His research interests include lean manufacturing and operations, design and analysis of flexible manufacturing systems, intelligent manufacturing, microelectronics and defense manufacturing, and enterprise integration and transformation. He is the author of over 200 publications and has served as a faculty adviser for more than 90 graduate students. 

In 2007, Chen was the founding director of the UTSA Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Lean Systems, a consortium of UTSA engineers and management scientists who encourage the adoption of lean, sustainable and flexible practices in manufacturing. 

Over his career, his research has been supported by more than $13 million in funding from federal agencies, the military and private industries. Before his full-time academic career, Chen was employed in 1991 by Caterpillar Technical Center Manufacturing R&D Divisions where he served in several roles. While a senior engineer and project manager at Caterpillar, he led a research and technical services group that specialized in the design and control of manufacturing systems. 

Before joining UTSA in 2006, Chen was the John L. Lawrence Professor of Manufacturing Systems Engineering in Virginia Tech's Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, where he established the Center for High Performance Manufacturing, a research center focused on flexible automation and lean manufacturing.  

In 2011, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), the world's premier organization for manufacturing knowledge, education and networking, elected Chen to its prestigious College of Fellows. Chen received the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) Fellow Award in 2019, the highest classification of membership in the IISE.

Chen earned his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in industrial engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1988 and 1985, respectively, and his B.E. in industrial engineering from Tunghau University in Taiwan in 1980.  He received the 2021 President's Distinguished Achievement Award in Advancing Globalization.