Chunjiang (C.J.) Qian, Ph.D.

Mary Lou Clarke Endowed Distinguished Professorship for Leadership in Electrical Engineering

Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Chair, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Chunjiang (C.J.) Qian is Department Chair for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Mary Lou Clarke Endowed Distinguished Professor for Leadership in Electrical Engineering. He joined UTSA in 2001 after receiving his Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University. He soon became a favorite teacher among UTSA's undergraduate engineering students. 

Early in his teaching career, Qian learned that students are most apt to retain information when it is presented practically, so he makes a point to include hands-on experiments in his classroom lectures. Additionally, he encourages his undergraduates to pursue research opportunities in engineering. Qian has also looked for ways to incorporate technology in the classroom since the beginning of his teaching career.  

Qian’s areas of research interest include robust and adaptive control of nonlinear systems, homogeneous systems theory, output feedback control, observer design and fault detection, intelligent control systems, and mathematical foundation of deep learning.

He has won multiple awards, including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2003 and the University of Texas System Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award in 2009. In addition, he is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a member of the UTSA Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars.