Chuen-yan Cheng is a senior scientist at the Population Council’s Center for Biomedical Research. He is a native of Hong Kong, graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a B.Sc. in 1977, and obtained his Ph.D. in biochemistry and cell biology at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, in 1981. He came to New York as a Population Council postdoctoral trainee in 1981, studying in the laboratory of Drs. Wayne Bardin, Neal Musto, and Glen Gunsalus and was appointed as a research investigator in December 1982. Cheng's research focuses on the development of a novel contraceptive for human males. These studies currently are supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the CONRAD Program, and the Andrew Mellon Foundation.

Cheng received the Richard E. Weizman Memorial Award from the Endocrine Society in 1988 and the Best Scientific Paper Award from the American Society of Andrology in 1997.

Cheng is affiliated with the Population Council's Reproductive Health program.