Prof. Chang obtained a Bachelor degree from the National Taiwan University and Master and Doctoral degrees (in physics) from Rice University in the USA. He was Assistant Professor and Associated Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics of Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, Texas, USA). In 1991, he joined the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) as a founding faculty member. He was appointed Professor and later Chair Professor. Prof. Chang was a Summer Investigator in Woods Hole Marine Biological Lab (1975-1995), Visiting Professor in Peking University (1981) , Tsinghua University (1986), and University of California at San Diago (1996). He is currently Professor Emeritus and Adjunct Professor in the Division of Life Science in HKUST.

Prof. Chang was the founding President of the Hong Kong Biophysical Society. He was also the Vice President of Hong Kong Institution of Science (HKIS), Council Member of the Asian Biophysical Association, Associated editor of the journal Biophysics, and a Corporate Member of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole (USA). Prof. Chang was elected a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Science in 2009.

Prof. Chang has very broad research interests, including biophysics, fundamental physics and macro-science. He has published three books and over 100 papers in international journals, including Nature, Science, PNAS and Biophys J. He also has about twenty international patents.