Dr Xu Liu is a Lecturer in Robotics, with joint appointments in the Department of Engineering and Department of Chemistry at King’s College London. Liu is a soft roboticist whose research spans robotic system design and the development of functional soft materials. By harnessing multiple environmental stimuli to engineer ionic transport in soft machines, she aims to bridge the gap between rigid machines and living systems by embodiment in soft machines.

Liu’s PhD work under the guidance of Robert Shepherd at Cornell focused on embodied energy for soft robotic systems. Liu’s postdoctoral work under the guidance of Thomas Wallin at MIT was on embodied information and control for soft machines.

For her research, Liu has received “Rising Star in Soft and Biological Matter” by the University of Chicago, the German Chancellor Fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation, the Oppenheimer Research Fellowship by the University of Cambridge, and, most recently, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Fellowship by the European Union, among others.

Beyond research, Liu was named a Young Changemaker in Sustainable WASH (1 of 5 globally) by UNICEF for her entrepreneurial efforts and was selected for the Homeward Bound for Antarctica Expedition for her work uplifting female voices in STEMM fields.

 

Research Interests 

• Soft robotics
• Functional soft materials
• Embodied intelligence

 

Further Information

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