Vice President

Dr. John Z. Chen is a ONE KBR Tech Fellow and serves the Corporate Level III at KBR in Houston, Texas. His previous roles have included materials engineer, design engineer, and NDE specialist, and he has performed examinations in refineries and chemical plants using alternating current field measurement, pulsed eddy current, and various ultrasonic techniques including thickness gauging.

A Lifetime Member of ASNT, Chen serves as the Vice President at ASNT, Chair of Finance Committee for ASNT Certification Services LLC, technical editor of Materials Evaluation, and an associate member of the Certification Management Committee (CMC). He has served as Secretary/Treasurer; Director at Large; co-chair of ICPIIT; vice chair of the Handbook Development Committee; member of the Selection Committee, Guided Waves Committee and Financial Awards Committee; session chair for conferences; and in officer positions for the Greater Houston Section.

Chen holds ASNT NDT Level III certification in six methods. He is a licensed professional engineer in six US states; a principal reviewer for the Welding Journal; and a past chair of the American Welding Society (AWS) Houston Section. He is a full member of Sigma Xi, a volunteer in local schools and the YMCA, and has served multiple times as a judge or lead judge for student engineering projects at the Science and Engineering Fair of Houston.

His recognitions include Jerry Fulin Level III of the Year from the Greater Houston Section (2017), ASNT Fellow (2016), a World Oil Award (2016), a Schlumberger President’s Award (2016), an Achievement Award for the Advance of Science and Technology in Beijing (2000), an Honored Undergraduate Award from Shaanxi Province (1995), three Section and a District Meritorious Award from AWS.

Chen has published 29 journal papers, delivered 23 presentations at conferences and section meetings, and reviewed 10 ASNT books. He received a PhD in welding engineering (2005) from The Ohio State University, and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering (1999) and a bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering (1995) from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China.