 Under the guidance of Gao Jiyu, he was the first in China to successfully synthesize the pesticide DDT.After the end of World War II, Chen was awarded a Chinese government scholarship to pursue graduate studies in the United States in 1947.He earned his master's and Ph.D. (in 1952) from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC), under the supervision of Sherlock Swann and H.F. Johnstone.