Robert Tienwen Chien

Also known as Robert Tien-Wen Chien, Robert T. Chien, 錢天問

Robert Tienwen Chien was an electrical engineering professor at Illinois whose research ranged from coding theory and information retrieval to computer-based intelligence. After earning three degrees at Illinois, he joined IBM's research center in Yorktown Heights as a group manager and received five patents. He returned to Illinois in 1964 as an associate professor and started research programs in automation and robotics; IBM gave him its first Invention Award in 1964. He published a 1964 paper on cyclic decoding, and the Chien search bears his name as a finite-field polynomial root-finding algorithm; with Franco Preparata and Gernot Metze, he introduced system-level diagnosis in 1967. He became an IEEE Fellow in 1972, directed Illinois's Coordinated Sciences Laboratory, started its distinguished lecture series in 1979 and died in 1983.

Born: 1931
Died: 1983
Works: 139
Citations: 3,137
h-index: 21
Badges: Bridge
Loyal
Pioneer

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

1954–1958

Degrees at Illinois

He earns a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1954, a master's degree in mathematics in 1957 and a doctorate in electrical engineering in 1958, all from UIUC. His 1958 thesis is “Synthesis of Active Networks with Negative Impedance Converters.”
1959–1965

IBM research and patents

From 1959 to 1965, he works as a research scientist and group manager at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center. He publishes “On the Characteristics of Error-Correcting Codes” in 1959 and receives five patents at IBM.
1964

Intelligence research at Illinois

In 1964, he returns to Illinois as an associate professor of electrical engineering. He continues work in coding theory and information retrieval and starts research programs in automation, robotics and computer-based intelligence.
1964

IBM Invention Award

IBM gives him its first Invention Award for Outstanding Contributions in 1964.
October 1964

The Chien search

In October 1964, he publishes “Cyclic Decoding Procedures for the Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem Codes.” The Chien search, named for him, is a fast algorithm for finding roots of polynomials over a finite field.
1967

Diagnosable systems

With Franco Preparata and Gernot Metze, he introduces system-level diagnosis, where one machine diagnoses another. Their 1967 paper addresses connection assignment for diagnosable systems and influences fault-tolerant computing.
1972

IEEE Fellow

He becomes an IEEE Fellow in 1972.
1971–1983

Directing the CSL

At Illinois's Coordinated Sciences Laboratory, he serves as associate director from 1971 to 1973 and director from 1973 until he dies in 1983. He starts the Robert T. Chien Distinguished Lecturer Series in 1979.