Liu earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Zhejiang University (P. R. China) in 2005. Before completing his doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (advisor, Dr. Paul F. Nealey), his research was recognized by the industry and he worked at HGST, a Western Digital company (California) in 2010 to apply his findings on 15-nm block copolymer lithography in magnetic data storage. After completing his doctorate in 2011, he conducted postdoctoral research at Northwestern University (advisor, Dr. Chad A. Mirkin), where he was named an outstanding researcher in the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN). He joined as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and an Affiliated Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Virginia Tech in Autumn 2014.
Liu has four patents assigned to Western Digital and one patent licensed to Intel.
Fabrication of chevron patterns for patterned media with block copolymer directed assembly
Liu, G., Nealey, P.F., Ruiz, R., Dobisz, E., Patel, K.C. and Albrecht, T.R.. Fabrication of chevron patterns for patterned media with block copolymer directed assembly. Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B. 2011. Vol. 29, Pg. 06F204.