Liang Chen was named a 2019 青年拔尖人才 Outstanding Young Talent. Outstanding Young Talents are Chinese scholars under the age of 40 from the natural and applied sciences, humanities, social sciences, and creative arts whose academic achievements already demonstrate outstanding creativity and social impact.
The Young Talents program was established in 2012. Approximately 200 Young Talents are named each year according to a rigorous nomination and selection process similar to those for Young Thousand Talents 青年千人 and Young Changjiang Scholars 青年长江 .