Tsu-Jae King Liu is an American academic and engineer who serves as the Dean and Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering at the

UC Berkeley College of Engineering The University of California, Berkeley College of Engineering, branded as Berkeley Engineering, is the engineering wing of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1931, the ...

. Liu is an

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

with extensive expertise and achievements in both academia and the semiconductor industry. At

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

, Liu leads a research team that explores the development of novel semiconductor devices, non-volatile memory devices, and M/NEMS technology for ultra-low power circuits. Her team is a part of the Berkeley Emerging Technologies Research Center and the

NSF NSF may stand for: Political organizations *National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party *NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party *National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political gr ...

Center for Energy Efficient Electronics in Science. At UC Berkeley, she is a faculty member of the Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute at Berkeley. She is also an affiliate faculty of the

Applied Science & Technology Graduate Program and the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Graduate Group.

Early life and education

Liu was born in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

to Taiwanese parents who were graduate students at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. Her father's research was in the area of

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

prediction and as such she spent the majority of her childhood and was raised in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. 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 The Xerox Alto is a computer designed from its inception to support an operating system based on a graphical user interface (GUI), later using the desktop metaphor. The first machines were introduced on 1 March 1973, a decade before mass-market G ...

. Liu received a

bachelor of science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

, a

master of science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

, and a

doctor of philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

in electrical engineering from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1984, 1986, and 1994, respectively.

Career

After graduating from

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

, Liu joined the research staff at the

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (ha ...

Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Her time at PARC from 1992 to 1996 was distinguished by her work on polycrystalline thin-film

transistors upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...

. In August 1996, Liu joined

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 A fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) is a multigate device, a MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor) built on a substrate where the gate is placed on two, three, or four sides of the channel or wrapped around the channel, f ...

transistor upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...

(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 The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...

in 2017 "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 Synopsys is an American electronic design automation (EDA) company that focuses on silicon design and verification, silicon intellectual property and software security and quality. Products include tools for logic synthesis and physical design ...

. In her leadership role as dean of the

, 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

. 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. She was previously senior director of engineering in the Advanced Technology Group of

. Since 2016, Liu has served as a member of the board of directors of

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

Research and select publications

A full list of Liu's publications are available online. This is a list are of her most cited works: * * * * * * * *

Awards

Liu has received numerous accolades for her research contributions: *Elected Member,

National Academy of Inventors The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) is a US non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging inventors in academia, following the model of the National Academies of the United States. It was founded at the University of South Florida in 2010. ...

(2018) *Elected Member, U.S. National Academy of Engineering (2017) *Fellow,

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

Significant Technical Achievement Award, for her work on FinFET (2000) *

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

Kiyo Tomiyasu Award, for her contributions to nanoscale MOS transistors (2010) *Outstanding Research Award, Semiconductor Industry Association (2014) *Inductee, Silicon Valley Hall of Fame *Outstanding Researcher in Nanotechnology Award,

(2012) *

SIA Sia Kate Isobelle Furler ( ; born 18 December 1975) is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. In 1997, when Crisp disbanded, she rel ...

University Researcher Award (2012) *

Asia Society The Asia Society is a non-profit organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States (Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) and around the world (Hong Kong, Man ...

's Game Changer West Award (2021) She has also been recognized for her contributions to teaching and mentorship as a faculty member: *Outstanding Teaching Award, Electrical Engineering *Distinguished Faculty Mentoring Award, UC Berkeley *Aristotle Award, Semiconductor Research Corporation

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Tsu-Jae King Living people People from New York City Stanford University alumni UC Berkeley College of Engineering faculty American electrical engineers American women engineers 1956 births 21st-century American women