Shu Chien was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1997 for research in blood rheology, microcirculation, cell mechanics, atherogenesis, and tissue engineering.
17 Facts About Shu Chien
2.
Shu Chien is one of only 11 scholars who are members of all three US national institutes: the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
3.
Shu Chien's family are descendants of the royal family of the King Qian Liu of the Kingdom of Wuyue.
4.
Shu Chien's grandfather Chien Hong-ye was a Chief Justice in the Supreme Court of the Republic of China.
5.
Shu Chien's young brother Fredrick Chien is an influential politician in Taiwan.
6.
From 1947 to 1948, Shu Chien completed his medical preparatory study at Peking University Medical School.
7.
Shu Chien went to study in the United States in 1954 and obtained his PhD in 1957 from Columbia University.
8.
From 1969 to 1988, Shu Chien was a Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the Columbia University.
9.
Shu Chien was a Founding Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 1992.
10.
Shu Chien is current President of the Whitaker Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, San Diego.
11.
Shu Chien was the Chair of the Department of Bioengineering of UCSD from 1994 to 1999 and from 2002 to 2005.
12.
Shu Chien is the founding director of the Institute of Engineering in Medicine in July 2008.
13.
Shu Chien was named as a recipient of the National Medal of Science by President Barack Obama on September 27,2011 for "pioneering work in cardiovascular physiology and bioengineering".
14.
In 1967 Shu Chien published three papers in Science that advanced the understanding of the physics behind the flow of red blood cells.
15.
Shu Chien and his colleagues discovered that this was a crucial factor in modulating viscosity and regulating blood flow and elucidated the mechanical, electrical and biochemical basis of this process.
16.
Shu Chien has investigated the mechanisms by which mechanical forces such as pressure and flow regulate the behaviors of the cells in blood vessels, including the endothelial cells lining the vessel lumen and the smooth muscle cells in the vessel interior and their interactions.
17.
Shu Chien's work has led to the understanding how forces with a clear direction can protect the vessels from atherosclerosis and how forces without a clear direction make the vessels vulnerable to atherosclerosis.