Prof. Yongping Chen was born in Wanzai of Jiangxi Pronvince in January 1976. He obtained his BSc degree in Harbor and Waterway Engineering at Hangzhou University (now named as Zhejiang University) in 1996, his MSc degree in Coastal Engineering at Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute in 1999, and his PhD degree in Coastal Environmental Fluids at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2006. From January 2007 to August 2010, he served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Plymouth, UK. He joined in Hohai University in 2011 as a full professor.

He is the vice dean of College of Harbour, Coastal and Offshore Engineering, and concurrently serves as the executive secretary of IAHR-Hohai Higher Education and E-learning Committee, the vice president of Estuarine and Coastal Research and Management Division of China Pacific Society, the member of Natural Disaster Committee of Asia-Pacific Federation of Engineering Organizations (FEIAP), the member of China Ocean Society, Coastal and Estuary Branch of China Marine Limnology Society, the member of Executive Committee of China Chapter of International Society for Water Resources and Environmental Engineering (IAHR), and the member of Editorial Board of Water Science and Engineering.

He has been engaged in teaching and scientific research in the field of water environment and water disasters in estuaries and coasts for more than 20 years. His main research interests include: forecasting, early warning and prevention of storm surge disasters, assessment of environmental effects of sewage discharged into coastal waters, and analysis of dynamic mechanism of estuaries and coasts. He presided over more than 20 scientific research projects, such as the national key research and development program, the national natural science foundation key international (regional) cooperative research project, the national natural science foundation general project, and the Ministry of Water Resources' public welfare industry research special fund project. He has published more than 160 papers in journals such as Coastal Engineering, Ocean Engineering, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, Advances in Water Science (in Chinese) and Shuili Xuebao (in Chinese), 6 monographs, 1 compilation standard, 7 invention patents and 5 software copyrights and won the second prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award, the first prize of Ministry of Education Science and Technology Progress Award and the second prize of Ministry of Education Science and Technology Progress Award.

In 2016, he was selected as the training target of young and middle-aged academic leaders in the  YoungTalent Project in Jiangsu Province, and in 2017, selected as the training target of high-level talents in the Six Talent Peaks in Jiangsu Province.