Prof. Tao Liu

Dr. Tao Liu is a doctoral supervisor and full professor, currently serving as the Dean of the School of Chemical Engineering at Dalian University of Technology. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Qufu Normal University in 2003 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Peking University in 2008. From 2008 to 2010, he conducted postdoctoral research in Kyushu University under the guidance of Professor Osamu Sato at the Institute for Advanced Materials Research. In September 2010, he joined Dalian University of Technology and established the Photoresponsive Molecular Materials Research Group. In 2013, he received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Outstanding Young Scholars. He was promoted to the position of professor and doctoral supervisor at Dalian University of Technology in December 2013. In recognition of his contributions, Dr. Liu received the Young Chemist Award from the Chinese Chemical Society in 2015 and was selected as a Changjiang Young Scholar by the Ministry of Education. In 2017, he was named a Young Talent of the Ten Thousand Talents Program by the Chinese government. In 2020, he received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Distinguished Young Scholars. Dr. Liu has held several academic leadership positions at Dalian University of Technology, including Vice Director of the State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals (since 2017), Director of the Chemical Analysis and Testing Center (since 2019), and Dean of the School of Chemical Engineering (since 2023). He is actively involved in various academic organizations and currently serves as the Vice President of the Liaoning Association of Petroleum and Chemical Industry, a member of the Higher Education Analysis and Testing Subcommittee, Vice Director of the Liaoning Provincial University Analysis and Testing Sharing Platform, a member of the Young Chemists Committee of the Chinese Chemical Society, Associate Editor of "Smart Molecules," and a Young Editorial Board Member of "Science Bulletin," "Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers," and "Structural Chemistry." Dr. Liu's research focuses on photoresponsive molecular magnetic materials. He has developed a unique research direction centered on "Photoinduced Metal-to-Metal Electron Transfer to Control Molecular Function." His work has addressed key challenges in traditional organic photochromic materials, including low solid-state conversion efficiency, photofatigue damage, and slow response rates. His research has led to a series of representative contributions, particularly in the field of manipulating magnetic dipole moments, electric dipole moments, anisotropic volume expansion, and fluorescence emission through light-controlled electron transfer. He has published over 80 research papers in prestigious journals such as Nat. Chem., Nat. Commun., Acc. Chem. Res., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Natl. Sci. Rev., CCS Chem., Chem. Sci., and Coord. Chem. Rev., etc. Dr. Liu's research group will continue to focus on the structural design and property control of photoresponsive molecular materials. The group aims to expand new smart molecular material systems, develop multi-channel ultrafast optical characterization platforms, and establish comprehensive property measurement platforms with extremely low-temperature adiabatic demagnetization refrigeration. Furthermore, the group will continue to conduct in-depth research on the functional coupling mechanisms under multiple physical fields and explore their applications in spin quantum devices, spin catalysis, and other related areas.