BIOGRAPHY
Liu is a first-generation American born in Ithaca, New York to Taiwanese parents who were graduate students at Cornell University. Her father's research was in the area of earthquake prediction and as such she spent the majority of her childhood and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a high-school student, Liu was given a tour of the PARC campus, where her interest in computing was stimulated by a demonstration of the Xerox Alto.
Liu received her B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
After graduating from Stanford, Liu joined the research staff at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Her time at PARC from 1992 to 1996 was distinguished by her work on polycrystalline thin-film transistors. In August 1996, Liu joined UC Berkeley as a faculty member of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. In the course of her research career, Liu has contributed to many developments in the field of semiconductor devices and technology and has co-authored over 500 papers in the field.
Liu's leading contributions span many research areas, but she is perhaps best known for the development of polycrystalline silicon-germanium thin film technology for applications in integrated circuits and microsystems. Liu is also the co-inventor of the three-dimensional FinFET transistor (fin field-effect transistor) which is the design that is used in all leading microprocessor chips today. Liu was elected to the National Academy of Engineering "for contributions to the fin field effect transistor (FinFET) and its application to nanometer complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology".
She holds over 95 patents and 80 patents pending in the area of semiconductor devices and fabrication methods. 37 of these patents have been assigned to a company she founded, Progressant Technologies Inc., which was acquired by Synopsys.
In her leadership role as Dean of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering, Liu has been outspoken about her commitment to bolster efforts to increase diversity and foster inclusion and respect for women and members of underrepresented minorities in engineering. Prior to assuming her role as Dean, Liu had served in extensive leadership roles at UC Berkeley. She was the faculty director of the Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory. From 2008 to 2012, she was Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering. She served as Chair of the Electrical Engineering Division from 2012 to 2014. And she then served as Chair of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department from 2014 to 2016.
Liu has served on the Board of Directors of Intel since 2016. She was previously Senior Director of Engineering in the Advanced Technology Group of Synopsys.