Professor of Epidemiology, Professor of Surgery, Professor of Medicine

Overview

Dr. Liu is a physician-scientist and epidemiologist whose work unites molecular genetics, nutrition, clinical medicine, and public health. He has decades of experience working in the healthcare space globally. His team has helped develop numerous research, teaching, and service programs serving diverse populations worldwide, including academic health centers, governments, NGOs, and industries. Dr. Liu is a Professor of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, a Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology), and a Professor of Surgery at the Alpert School of Medicine. He also serves as director of the Center for Global Cardiometabolic Health (CGCH) and holds an adjunct professorship at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Chinese University of HongKong (Honorary), Guangdong General Hospital/Academy of Medical Sciences, and Fuwai Hospital (Honorary) and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Before joining the Brown faculty, Dr. Liu was the founding director of the UCLA Burroughs Wellcome Fund Inter-school Program in Metabolic Disease and the Center for Metabolic Disease Prevention while serving as a Professor of Epidemiology, Medicine, and Ob/Gyn at UCLA. Before that, he served as Instructor, Assistant, and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and as Assistant and Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard University. Dr. Liu's research is mainly concerned with the etiology of chronic diseases with special emphasis on identifying strategies for their prevention and control.  His team has contributed to many studies of diverse populations around the world. This work has led to the identification and confirmation of several novel genetic, biochemical, dietary, and environmental risk factors and their interactions in the development of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. To date, Dr. Liu has published >400 peer-reviewed research papers, some of which are most frequently cited. In 2015, he was listed as one of the most highly cited scholars with an H-index>100. He has developed and taught 8 courses and directly supervised >100 trainees at Harvard, UCLA, and Brown, and delivered > 200 invited lectures worldwide.

Dr. Liu is an elected fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA), American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), American Epidemiological Society (AES), and a permanent member of the Epidemic Intelligence Service Alumni Association (EISAA). He has also served as a member or chair on committees/study sections/ advisory boards for federal and international agencies, including the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Chinese CDC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the European Union, the British Medical Research Council (MRC), and the World Health Organization (WHO), providing consultations on issues related to pharmaceuticals, nutrition, and global health.

Research Areas

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