In Loving Memory
Dr. YangQuan Chen
August 22, 1966 to April 27, 2026
Husband, Father, Engineer, Educator, Inventor, and a mentor who changed the lives of all who learned beside him.
A Life Well Lived
Remembering Dr. Chen
Dr. YangQuan Chen was a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Merced, where he directed the Mechatronics, Embedded Systems and Automation (MESA) Lab. A brilliant and generous scholar, he devoted his career to advancing the frontiers of control systems, mechatronics, unmanned aerial systems, and applied fractional calculus, leaving a body of work that will continue to inspire researchers for generations.
Dr. Chen earned his B.S. in Industrial Automation from the University of Science and Technology of Beijing in 1985, his M.S. in Automatic Control from the Beijing Institute of Technology in 1989, and his Ph.D. in Advanced Control and Instrumentation from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 1998. Before joining UC Merced in 2012, he served on the faculty of Utah State University, where he founded and directed the Center for Self-Organizing and Intelligent Systems.
Throughout his career, Dr. Chen mentored hundreds of students, authored over a thousand scholarly works, and was recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics from 2018 to 2021. He received Researcher of the Year awards from both Utah State University and UC Merced. His passion for unmanned aerial systems, fractional calculus, and engineering service learning inspired students to see engineering not merely as a discipline, but as a means to serve the world.
He is remembered not only for his extraordinary intellectual contributions, but for his warmth, his humor, and the generous spirit he brought to every lecture, lab, and conversation.
Memorial Service
Thank you
The memorial service for Dr. YangQuan Chen has concluded. We are deeply grateful to everyone who attended, who traveled to Merced, and who joined us in spirit.
Thank you as well to everyone who shared written memories and photographs in advance of the service. Your contributions helped honor his life and will be treasured by the family.
Memorial Service
Service Details
Colleagues, students, family members, and friends are respectfully invited to gather in celebration of Dr. Chen's life on Sunday, May 17, 2026, at Stratford Evans Merced Funeral Home, Merced, California. Memorial viewing begins at 1:00pm Pacific Time and the service begins at 2:00pm Pacific Time.
Date and time
Sunday, May 17, 2026
1:00 p.m. Pacific Time
Please plan to arrive a few minutes early to be seated.
Venue
Stratford Evans Merced Funeral Home
1490 B St
Merced, CA 95341
Reception
A celebration of life service will follow the memorial viewing. Light refreshments will be provided.
Getting Here
Directions and parking
The funeral home is in central Merced, west of Highway 99. On-site parking is available. Guests are encouraged to arrive several minutes before the service to allow time to be seated.
- From State Route 99 (either direction): Use a central Merced exit (for example Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard or G Street, depending on whether you are northbound or southbound) and follow signs toward downtown. Navigate to 1490 B Street. The funeral home is on B Street near West 15th Street.
- From elsewhere in the Central Valley: Set your navigation app to 1490 B St, Merced, CA 95341 or use the Google Maps links below.
- Parking: Complimentary parking is available on-site. Accessible parking spaces are located near the main entrance.
Stratford Evans Merced Funeral Home, 1490 B St, Merced, CA 95341
Attendance
RSVP
Kindly indicate whether you will attend so that seating and hospitality may be arranged appropriately.
Memories
Contribute a memory
Share a short written memory of Dr. Chen, an optional photograph or PDF (or both), for the family's use in preparing the memorial and a private commemorative collage. Submissions are not shown in a public gallery on this site.
Your contribution
Include at least one: a memory of 10 or more characters, or a file (JPEG, PNG, HEIC, or PDF, up to 10 MB). Both confirmations below must be checked before you submit.
Donations
If you would like to remember Dr. YangQuan Chen with a gift, we really appreciate it. Enter your email here and we will send bank information to that address only. Please keep any details in that message private. If nothing arrives right away, check your spam folder. We can send at most one instruction email to each address per day.
What you give will be used only for Dr. YangQuan Chen’s funeral and the other related costs. The family will pass any excess funds on in his name to the UC Merced charity program.
Inquiries
Memorial coordination
For questions regarding the service, requests for disability-related accommodations, or messages intended for the family, please contact the coordinating team at the address below.