The Principal Investigator

Chen-Yu Liu, PhD {she/her/hers}, is a Full Professor in the Physics Department and the Nuclear Physics Laboratory (NPL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Dr. Liu completed her doctoral research in Experimental Nuclear Physics at Princeton University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center as a Director’s Funded Post-Doctoral Fellow. She is an alumna of National Taiwan University. She was a Sloan Research Fellow (2007-2008) and a Rosen Scholar (2016-2017). She taught at Indiana University from 2005-2022 and was named the James H. Rudy Professor of Physics. In 2022, she was recruited to UIUC through the U of I Distinguished Faculty Recruitment Program.
Expertise: Experimental nuclear and particle physics; ultracold neutrons; beta-decays; neutrino physics; electric dipole moments; precision measurements on fundamental constants and testing fundamental symmetries.
Research Interests: my research interest
Publications: see our Resources page for free full text copies. If you can’t find what you want, email me!
More information about Prof. Liu here — An updated CV can be found here — Her PhD dissertation is here— ResearchGate is here — LinkedIn is here
Email: chenyliu [at] illinois.edu
Postdoctoral Fellows
Yi (Jennie) Chen 2019–present
Austin Reid 2018–present, a visiting professor at Trinity College during 2020-2021
Graduate Students
Douglas Wong, IU 2016--present
Maria Dawid, IU 2020--present
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Alicen Houff, IU 2020 -- present
Gregory Gill, IU 2020 -- present
Past graduate students:
-
Francisco Gonzalez, Ph.D. 2021 “Precision Measurement of the Neutron Lifetime with the UCNtau Experiment” (2015–2021)
now a postdoc at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory -
Nathan Callahan, Ph.D. 2018 “Measurement of the Neutron Beta Decay Lifetime Using Magnetically Trapped Ultracold Neutrons” (2012–2018)
now a postdoc at Argonne National Laboratory -
Even Adamek, Ph.D. 2017 “Measurement of the Neutron Beta Decay Lifetime Using Magnetically Trapped Ultracold Neutrons” (2011-2017)
now a postdoc at the University of Mainz, Germany -
Daniel Salvat, Ph.D. 2015 “A Magneto-Gravitational Neutron Trap for the Measurement of the Neutron Lifetime” (2009-2015)
now a research scientist at Indian University -
Maciej Karcz, Ph.D. 2014 “Electric Breakdown and Ionization Detection in Normal Liquid and Superfluid 4He for the SNS nEDM experiment” (2007-2014)
now a production engineer at Intel -
Young Jin Kim, Ph.D. 2011 “An Experimental Search for the Electron Electric Dipole Moment in a Gadolinium Gallium Garnet Crystal” (2006-2011)
now a staff scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory -
Yunchang Shin, Ph.D. 2008 “Studies in Neutron Phase Space cooling for Cold and Ultra-Cold Neutron Sources” (2005-2008)
now a staff scientist at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Kaist), South Korea
Past postdoctoral fellows:
- Robert Pattie (IU, 2017), now a tenure-track assistant professor at the East Tennessee State University
- Adam Holley (IU, 2012–2014), now a tenured associate professor at the Tennessee Technological University
- Chris Lavelle (IU, 2007–2010), now a senior staff scientist in the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
- Goverdhan Reddy Turpu (IU, 2007–2009), now a professor in the Department of Pure and Applied Physics, Guru Ghasidas University (Central University), Bilaspur, India
My research group at Indiana University (2010)

