Richard Y. Liu, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Dept. of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Harvard University

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Richard earned an A.B. summa cum laude in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard College (2015), where he conducted research with Theodore A. Betley and Eric N. Jacobsen. During his graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Richard worked with Stephen L. Buchwald on the development of copper-hydride catalysts for olefin hydrofunctionalization processes, as well as palladium- and nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions. After earning his Ph.D. in 2019, he joined the laboratory of Timothy M. Swager at MIT and the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) as a postdoctoral associate, during which he demonstrated new applications of photochemistry performed on and by organic polymers. Richard will return to Harvard University to join the faculty in July 2022. His independent research will focus on discovering new concepts at the interface of organic, inorganic, physical, materials, and theoretical chemistry, with the goal of addressing global challenges in sustainability, energy, and human health.

Recent Awards

• ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator (2023)

• Smith Family Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research (2023)

• CAS Future Leaders (2022)

• Reaxys PhD Prize Finalist (2020)

• Ereztech Young Organometallic Scientists Award (2019)

• Bristol Myers Squibb Fellowship in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2017–2018)

• MIT Department of Chemistry Award for Outstanding Teaching (2016)

• Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Derek Bok Center at Harvard (2014)