Yan Liu is an Australian

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

known for her use of

cellular automata A cellular automaton (pl. cellular automata, abbrev. CA) is a discrete model of computation studied in automata theory. Cellular automata are also called cellular spaces, tessellation automata, homogeneous structures, cellular structures, tessel ...

and

particle system A particle system is a technique in game physics, motion graphics, and computer graphics that uses many minute sprites, 3D models, or other graphic objects to simulate certain kinds of "fuzzy" phenomena, which are otherwise very hard to repr ...

s to model patterns of urban development. Her work has also involved using electronic transit pass data to compare the transportation patterns of residents of Australian and Chinese cities. Liu has a Ph.D. from the University of Queensland, and an associate professor of

human geography Human geography or anthropogeography is the branch of geography that studies spatial relationships between human communities, cultures, economies, and their interactions with the environment. It analyzes spatial interdependencies between social i ...

and deputy head of school in the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

School of Earth and Environmental Sciences. She is the author of the book ''Modelling urban development with geographical information systems and cellular automata'' (CRC Press, 2009).

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* Australian geographers Australian women social scientists Women geographers Cellular automatists University of Queensland alumni Academic staff of the University of Queensland Year of birth missing (living people) Living people {{Australia-scientist-stub