Chun Liu Named SIAM Fellow for Research Excellence
Chun Liu, professor and chair of the Department of Applied Mathematics at Illinois Tech, was among 25 researchers who were recently selected to enter the 2025 Fellows Program of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
SIAM highlighted Liu’s contributions to the theory and applications of nonlinear partial differential equations in the fields of biophysics, complex fluids, and materials sciences. Fellows are honored not just for their research accomplishments, but for their service to the community as well.
“It’s nice to be recognized by my colleagues, but this also gives visibility for the whole department and Illinois Tech,” says Liu, who also serves as the chair of the Department of Applied Mathematics. “It’s great recognition for the mathematics research that’s going on here at Illinois Tech.”
SIAM has been designating Fellows of the Society since 2009 with the following goals:
To honor SIAM members who have been recognized by their peers as distinguished for their contributions to the discipline
To help make outstanding SIAM members more competitive for awards and honors when they are being compared with colleagues from other disciplines
To support the advancement of SIAM members to leadership positions in their own institutions and in the broader society
The designation as a SIAM fellow is a lifetime honorific title, with no special duties or privileges.
Liu’s research includes partial differential equations and calculus of variations, as well as their applications in complex fluids. Liu has published more than 180 publications. His research projects have been continuously supported the National Science Foundation, the United States Department of Energy, and various federal and international research foundations.
“The Department of Applied Mathematics at Illinois Tech is very strong in research with collaborators, both in and out of Illinois Tech, in many different areas,” Liu says. “For instance, more than 70 percent of the faculty in the department are doing research related to data sciences and machine learning.”
Liu has been the recipient of several awards, including the Householder Lecturer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2019 and a 2024 fellow of the American Mathematical Society. He has also long served as editor for the SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis; Communications in Mathematical Sciences; Interfaces and Free Boundaries; Kinetic and Related Models; Analysis and Application; Journal of Mathematical Study; and Computational and Mathematical Biophysics.
