Professor Wei Liu is a Professor of Design Engineering and Innovation at King’s College London and the Associate Vice Dean (PGT) in the Faculty of Natural, Mathematical and Engineering Sciences. She has extensive experience in teaching, research and leadership across design, engineering and management.

She earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge and was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University, where she explored interdisciplinary education. Before joining King’s, she held academic and leadership roles across the UK, US, and China, including faculty positions at Cambridge Judge Business School, Assistant Dean at Tongji University, and Director of the Design Research Group and Programme Director at Aston University.

Wei is an elected Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA) and a Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). She is the founding director of several interdisciplinary degree programmes, including the MSci Design, Enterprise, and Innovation - the UK’s first degree integrating Engineering, Design, and Business to foster creativity and entrepreneurship in solving real-world challenges. She also led the design and development of King’s Quad Engineering makerspaces and project spaces. Her contributions to education have earned her multiple awards for Teaching Excellence and recognition awards. In 2021, she was elected Director and Executive Board Member of the Design in Engineering Education Division at the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). In 2022, she was the sole nominee from her faculty for the ‘Innovation in Teaching’ Excellence Award, and in 2024, she won the University-wide King’s Education Award. In 2025, she won the National-wide Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE).

Wei’s interdisciplinary research has secured over £6.5 million in grants from funding bodies such as EPSRC, NIHR, and NSFC. Her work has led to patented inventions and publications in leading journals of design, healthcare, advanced manufacturing and innovation management areas. Her paper was recognised as Top Cited and Most Downloaded Paper of the Year by Wiley. She has won Best Paper Awards from the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) Conference and the British Academy of Management (BAM) Conference, as well as the N.E.J. Stevenson Award for Outstanding Contribution to Research from the Design and Technology Association.

Beyond academia, Wei has extensive industry experience, having worked with leading global business and design consultancies such as BCG, IBM, and TEAMS Design. There, she led the design and development of consumer goods, industrial products, and digital solutions for top global brands. Many of her designs have been successfully produced and marketed, earning international design awards, including the Red Dot Design Award.

Wei plays key editorial roles in high-impact journals, serving as Co-Editor of The Design Journal (the official journal of the European Academy of Design), Associate Editor of Gerontechnology, Editorial Board Member of Nature - Humanities & Social Sciences Communication, Editorial Advisory Board Member of International Journal of Engineering Education and Youth Editorial Board Member of Engineering. She is a full member of the EPSRC Review College and an international reviewer for the Austrian Science Fund. Additionally, she has served as an external examiner and judge for international design competitions, degree programme reviews, and academic promotions. She is frequently invited as a conference chair, session chair, keynote speaker, and conference committee member for major international events.

Professor Liu is currently accepting PhD candidates, please send your CV via email to wei.liu@kcl.ac.uk.