Yu Liu, Ph.D., was born and raised in Xi'an, China. He is an assistant professor of chemistry. Liu received his B.S. in chemistry from Peking University in 2006 and came to the U.S. for graduate study at the University of Maryland, College Park the same year.

He received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 2011, then took a postdoctoral research position at the University of Delaware from 2012 to 2014. After working as a visiting assistant professor at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, for one year, Liu joined Rockhurst University in the fall of 2015.