Chen Mingshao, male, Han nationality, is a native of Dabu, Guangdong Province and a civil engineering graduate of Qinghua University. He was born in 1914. From 1944 to 1953 he was a professor at four different institutions, after which he became deputy director, then chief engineer at the Beijing Sanitation Projects Bureau.
Chen's civil engineering career continued at the Beijing Municipal Works Designing Institute and the city's Urban Construction Planning Committee. After a tour as professor at the Beijing Civil Engineering Institute, he became vice-president and then president of Beijing Polytechnical University in 1961.
From 1978 on Chen was active in the Jiusan (September 3) Society, one of China's eight non-communist parties, the CPPCC, and the Beijing People's Congress. He was a member of the standing committee of the 5th through the 8th CPPCC Central Committees and vice-chairman of the standing committee of the 8th and 9th Beijing People's Congress. His various positions in the Jiusan Society culminated in his being named honorary vice-chairman of its 10th standing committee.