Professor Chan was department head from 1994 to 1998. He obtained his B.Sc.(Eng.) degree in Civil Engineering from The University of Hong Kong in 1960 and D.I.C. and Ph.D. degrees in structural engineering from Imperial College of Science and Technology, London University in 1965. Since then he has been actively involved in professional practice, research, consultancy and education in the structural engineering field. His main research interests are in the areas of higher order finite element method, shearwalls and corewalls, and plate and space structures. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, The Institution of Structural Engineers, United Kingdom and of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers.