Prof. Nian Cai LIU took his undergraduate study in chemistry at Lanzhou University of China. He obtained his Master’s and doctoral degrees in polymer science and engineering from Queen’s University at Kingston, Canada. He worked as an associate professor and a full professor at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University from 1993 and 1997 respectively. He moved to the field of higher education research in 1999.

Prof. LIU is now the Director of the Center for World-Class Universities and the Dean of Graduate School of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. His current research interests include world-class universities and research universities, university evaluation and academic ranking, research evaluation and science policy, and institutional research and strategic planning of universities.

Prof. LIU has published extensively in both Chinese and English journals. The Academic Ranking of World Universities, an online publication (http://www.arwu.org ) of his group, has attracted attentions from all over the world. His books “The World-Class University as Part of a New Higher Education Paradigm: From Institutional Quality to Systematic Excellence” and “World-Class University and Ranking: Aiming Beyond Status”, both co-edited with Dr. Jan Sadlak, have been published in 2009 and 2007 respectively.

Prof. LIU has been active in professional services. He is on the editorial/advisory boards of several international journals, including Scientometrics, Research Evaluation, Higher Education in Europe, and Journal of Engineering Education. He initiated the 1st International Conference on World-Class Universities in 2005, and organized the 2nd and 3rd ones in 2007 and 2009 respectively. He co-organized the 3rd Meeting of International Ranking Expert Group in October 2007.
Elected Vice President of the IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence in October, 2009.