NTU Alumnus and Distinguished Chair Professor K. J. Ray Liu elected as 2021 IEEE President-Elect

In its annual elections concluded on October 12 at its headquarters, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) elected Professor K. J. Ray Liu of the University of Maryland as the 2021 IEEE President-Elect. Dr. Liu will serve as President in 2022, the first ethnic Chinese selected for this position in IEEE's 140-year history. This critical new role will considerably raise Taiwan's global profiles and visibility and his alma mater National Taiwan University, especially in electrical and electronic engineering. Taiwan is proud to call such a distinguished scholar its own.

The IEEE was established in 1963 by merging the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), established in 1884, and the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE). The IEEE is the largest and most influential professional organization globally, boasting 420,000 full members and 120,000 student members in over 160 countries. The IEEE has 342 sections in ten geographic regions worldwide, two of which, the Taipei and Tainan Sections, are in Taiwan. Based on technical areas, IEEE consists of 46 societies and technical councils that publish more than 200 premier academic journals. Each year IEEE sponsors over 1,900 international conferences with a combined attendance of over 540,000 people. Each of IEEE's professional societies organizes its competitions and industry-academia events, and the Institute has created over 1,200 global technical standards that have been instrumental to the development of academic communities and industries around the world.

Dr. Liu graduated from NTU in 1983 with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering. He is currently Distinguished University Professor and Christine Kim Eminent Professor of Information Technology, A. James Clark School of Engineering, at the University of Maryland. He has also been appointed Distinguished Chair Professor at NTU. An outstanding international leader in electrical and electronic engineering, Dr. Liu's academic and administrative work has been highly recognized worldwide. Dr. Liu has been elevated to IEEE Fellow and has served in many important positions within the Institute, including IEEE Vice President of Technical Activities, responsible for managing the technical activities of 50+ societies/councils/technical communities across the world. Dr. Liu was also the Division IX Director of the IEEE Board of Directors 2016/2017 and the Signal Processing Society President 2012/2013. He has made tremendous contributions as an IEEE leader, helping the global electrical and electronic engineering community to achieve considerable strides and innovation. He has received two IEEE Technical Field Awards: the 2016 IEEE Leon K. Kirchmayer Graduate Teaching Award and the 2021 IEEE Fourier Award for Signal Processing. He was honored Fellow of National Academy of Inventors for his wireless AI inventions last year and the CES 2020 Innovation Award this year. Dr. Liu's accomplishments have established him internationally as a heavyweight in both industry and academia.

The Signal and Information Group (SIG) of the University of Maryland, College Park, led by Dr. Liu, conducts research in broad aspects of signal processing and communications. He has trained over 68 Ph.D. and postdoctoral students, of which ten are now IEEE fellows, and most of whom are active members of major universities and industrial institutions worldwide. SIG's current research focus is wireless AI, a technology that enables indoor positioning and wireless sensing. Under Dr. Liu's leadership, SIG has developed the world's first-ever centimeter-accuracy wireless indoor positioning systems, which won the 2017 CEATEC Grand Prix and was selected as one of the seven technologies to change the world by the IEEE. Dr. Liu has also introduced the concept of radio biometrics and has developed the world's first human recognition technology using radio waves.

Despite his many years of living and working in the United States, Dr. Liu has a great deal of affection for and has maintained close ties with Taiwan, the country where he was raised and educated. In addition to his longstanding appointment as NTU Distinguished Chair Professor, Dr. Liu often returns to Taiwan to give lectures and offer guidance to students. His efforts have helped Taiwan become host to the 2009 ICASSP and the upcoming 2020 IEEE GLOBECOM, two IEEE flagship conferences on signal processing and communications. Sharing Dr. Liu's tremendous honor, all of us at National Taiwan University offer Dr. Liu our most sincere congratulations on his extraordinary achievements.

Professor K. J. Ray Liu’s website: http://www.cspl.umd.edu/kjrliu/