Chip expert Chen Ye joins China’s Zhejiang University – as it overtakes Harvard

2-MIN READ2-MIN0ListenPublished: 2:00pm, 31 Aug 2026Updated: 3:19pm, 31 Aug 2026Chen Ye, a semiconductor quality control expert with more than 16 years of industry experience in the United States, has been appointed as a Qiushi Distinguished Professor at Zhejiang University’s College of Integrated Circuits, the university has announced.The university, based in Hangzhou, overtook Harvard University to become the world’s top academic institution in the 2026 Nature Index, ending its 11-year grip on the title which it had held since 2015.Chen most recently served as chief scientist at Semitronix Corporation in Hangzhou, China, a role he took on in 2024, after returning from the US.01:41Facing Maga anger, Trump defends move to admit thousands of Chinese studentsBefore that, he spent over 16 years at top American chip firms, including KLA and Anchor Semiconductor, where he specialised in developing defect-detection and yield-analysis systems for advanced chip manufacturing.