Yong Chen was born in 1942 in Chongqing, with ancestral roots in Suqian, Jiangsu. He is currently a retired professor at Nanjing University.

In 1993, he was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Earth Sciences Division), and in 2000, he became an Academician of the Third World Academy of Sciences. He has served as the Director of the Earth Sciences Division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, President of the Chinese Geophysical Union (CGU), Director of the People's Insurance Company of China (PICC), Dean of the School of Geophysics and Space Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China, Chair of the International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior (IASPEI) Committee on Earthquake Prediction and Disaster, and Deputy Director of the China Earthquake Administration.

His published works include textbooks such as Rock Physics, Fractal Geometry, Mechanical Properties of Crustal Rocks, Applications of Fractals and Chaos in Earth Sciences, and New Technologies in Earth Sciences. He has also authored monographs including Natural Disasters, The Great Tangshan Earthquake of 1976: An Anatomy of Disaster, Seismic Hazard and Risk Analysis: A Simplified Approach, Estimating Losses from Earthquakes in China in the Next 50 Years, and The Wenchuan Earthquake of 2008. His popular science books include Illuminating the Underground, The Vibrant Earth, Volcanic Disasters, Tsunami Disasters, Earthquake Disasters, Space Disasters, Landslide Disasters, and Mitigating Natural Disasters.