Ji Chen received his Bachelor degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 1989, the Master degree from McMaster University (Canada) in 1994, and the Ph.D. degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998, all in electrical engineering.

He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Houston. Before he joined University Of Houston, he worked as a staff engineer at Motorola Personal Communication Research Labs in Chicago from 1998-2001. He also received a Motorola Engineering Award in 2000.

In 2006, he was awarded the ORISE Fellowship.