Tianyou Chai received a Ph.D. degree in control theory and engineering in 1985 from Northeastern University, Shenyang, China, where he became a Professor in 1988. He is the founder and Director of the Center of Automation, which became a National Engineering and Technology Research Center and a State Key Laboratory. He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, IFAC Fellow and IEEE Fellow, Editor-in-Chief of ACTA AUTOMATICA SINICA and Control Engineering of China. He had served as director of Department of Information Science of National Natural Science Foundation of China from 2010 to 2018.

His current research interests include modeling, control, optimization and integrated automation and intelligence of complex industrial processes.

He has published 356 peer reviewed international journal papers. His paper titled Hybrid intelligent control for optimal operation of shaft furnace roasting process was selected as one of three best papers for the Control Engineering Practice Paper Prize for 2011-2013. He has developed control technologies with applications to various industrial processes. For his contributions, he has won 5 prestigious awards of National Natural Science, National Science and Technology Progress and National Technological Innovation, the 2007 Industry Award for Excellence in Transitional Control Research from IEEE Multiple-conference on Systems and Control, and the 2017 Wook Hyun Kwon Education Award from the Asian Control Association.