Rate My Professor Alan Liu

Dr. Alan Liu is a tenured Professor of Engineering Physics in the Physical Sciences Department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s College of Arts & Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida. He earned his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research specializes in optical remote sensing of the middle and upper atmosphere using lidar technology, atmospheric dynamics, and the physics and chemistry of the middle and upper atmosphere. Dr. Liu manages the Andes Lidar Observatory at Cerro Pachón, Chile, which is equipped with a sodium resonance/fluorescence lidar, airglow imagers, and a meteor radar to measure atmospheric winds, temperatures, and wave signatures. He has served as principal investigator on multiple National Science Foundation grants, including a Major Research Instrumentation project for deploying an advanced meteor radar at the observatory and an Aeronomy project supporting sodium lidar operations. Dr. Liu also holds an adjunct professor position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has advised several master’s and Ph.D. students and is a senior member of the IEEE, as well as a member of the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society. In 2014, he received the Abas Sivjee Outstanding Researcher of the Year Award.

Dr. Liu has authored over 77 peer-reviewed journal publications, achieving an h-index of 29 and more than 2,100 citations as of 2019. Notable publications include “First Na Lidar Measurements of Turbulence Heat Flux, Thermal Diffusivity, and Energy Dissipation Rate in the Mesopause Region” (2017, with Y. Guo and C.S. Gardner), “Atmospheric Tomography Using the Nordic Meteor Radar Cluster And Chilean Observation Network de Meteor Radars: Network Details and 3D-Var Retrieval” (2021, with G. Stober et al.), “Identifying Gravity Waves Launched by the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha′apai Volcanic Eruption in Mesosphere/Lower-Thermosphere Winds Derived from CONDOR and the Nordic Meteor Radar Cluster” (2023, with G. Stober et al.), and “Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere Wind Perturbations Due To the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Eruption as Observed by Multistatic Specular Meteor Radars” (2024). His work has advanced understanding of gravity waves, tides, and their impacts on atmospheric circulation and space weather.