Mee-Mann Chang has been a leading paleontologist in the People's Republic of China for many years. Between 1983 and 1991 she was director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing.

Much of Dr. Chang's research has focused on Devonian fishes, and she has made some of the most important modern discoveries concerning primitive lungfishes and lungfishlike fossils such as Diabolepis. Her work has had a tremendous impact on current views regarding the origins and interrelationships of lungfishes and tetrapods.