Jianye Chen is interested in the nucleation and runaway processes associated with large earthquakes. He is also interested in measuring transport properties of tight rocks such as fault gouge and shale. Recently, he and C.J. Spiers (my Ph.D. promoter) have established a microphysical model for describing friction of any granular material. His ambition now is to apply this model to frictional phenomena observed in both laboratorial and natural faults. All his work is relevant to an ERC project ("SEISMIC") by Andre Niemeijer.