Dr. Liu joined UMKC as its Vice Chancellor for Research & Economic Development in August 2019.

Most recently Dr. Liu served as Associate Vice President for Research at California State University, Fullerton, the largest institution within the 23-campus California State University (CSU) System, where he was a tenured professor in the Department of Biological Science. He managed operations for the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects, working closely with research center directors, faculty, deans, chairs and community business partners to promote research and innovation. In addition, Dr. Liu administered two annual grants programs sponsored by NSF and NIH to enhance both STEM and non-STEM research, teaching and creative activities.

Dr. Liu also served as Program Director at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), where he managed a core Earth Science program in the Directorate for Geosciences, and co-managed two cross-disciplinary programs in the Directorate for Biological Sciences, with a total annual budget of $30M.

Dr. Liu completed Ph.D. from the Academia Sinica, followed by postdoctoral researches in Europe (University of Vienna and Humboldt University of Berlin), Asia (Chiba University of Japan), and North America (University of Saskatchewan in Canada). He has published about 80 peer-reviewed journal articles and/or book chapters. His research deals with quantitatively reconstructing ancient climates in the North Hemisphere. He was a tenure-track faculty member within four large public university systems (University of Wisconsin system, Tennessee Board of Regents, Texas A&M University system, and CSU System) and became the Director of the Center for Excellence in Paleontology at East Tennessee State University. He has served as an editorial member for an international peer-reviewed journal (Palaeontographica Abt. B) since 2013.