The UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health is delighted to announce the appointment of Simin Liu, MD, ScD, as the new Chair and Distinguished Professor of the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, effective October 1, 2024.
We would also like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Luohua Jiang, MD, PhD, for her outstanding service as Interim Chair over the past two years. Dr. Jiang began her tenure with UC Irvine in 2014 as an assistant professor and was recently promoted to full professor. Over the last ten years, she has demonstrated her value to our School and the larger campus through her active research program, commitment to exceptional teaching, and her recent role as the Interim Chair. Her leadership and dedication have been instrumental in maintaining the Department’s highest standards and during the recruitment process for Dr. Liu.
Dr. Liu comes to UC Irvine after having spent the last 11 years of his illustrious academic career at Brown University where he held dual appointments in the School of Public Health and the Alpert School of Medicine. In addition, he served as Director of Brown’s Center for Global Cardiometabolic Health. Prior to his tenure at Brown, Dr. Liu was a faculty member at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine from 2005 to 2013 where he also held various leadership roles across the larger UCLA campus. Prior to UCLA, he was an associate professor at the Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health.
In the ever-evolving landscape of scientific research, few individuals stand out as true pioneers who have not only advanced their field but have also fundamentally changed the way we understand the world. Dr. Liu joins us as one such leader whose groundbreaking work has reshaped paradigms and set new standards in scientific inquiry.
Epidemiology is the foundational science for public health, and biostatistics are employed in every substantive issue of modern biomedical science. The work we do affects the lives of millions of people worldwide.”
– Simin Liu, MD, ScD
Dr. Liu’s research cuts across multiple domains and disciplines to help identify risk factors for and distributions of complex diseases. His research portfolio stands at over $20 million in extramural grant funding, 400+ peer-reviewed scholarly publications, and active participation in over 100 committees, advisory boards, and service events. A hallmark of Dr. Liu’s extensive portfolio is when his lab was among the first to define and quantify dietary glycemic load in humans, which helps determine the functional role of dietary carbohydrates in the development of health outcomes. This novel nutritional concept is now widely used in the clinical management of diabetes, nutritional epidemiology, and dietary feeding trials of diverse populations worldwide.
As a leading epidemiologist and physician-scientist, Dr. Liu has also been a catalyst for change cultivating a global collaborative community for evidence-based clinical and population health precision practice for chronic disease prevention and control. Particularly in China and Brazil, Dr. Liu helped colleagues develop numerous clinical and population studies of cardiometabolic outcomes across individuals’ lifespans and even across generations. These studies will prove to be unique and invaluable experiences for our young and aspiring Wen Public Health investigators who want to seek answers to some of the age-old questions of biological, clinical and public health significance. His leadership in global health has fostered a collaborative environment that encourages innovation and cross-disciplinary research.
“Epidemiology is the foundational science for public health, and biostatistics are employed in every substantive issue of modern biomedical science. The work we do affects the lives of millions of people worldwide. It is an exciting time to be an epidemiologist and I look forward with enthusiasm to working with and learning from every member of the UCI community and beyond toward the betterment of both individual and population health outcomes,” said Dr. Liu.
“Dr. Liu embodies Wen Public Health’s spirit of scientific discovery and innovation. His work has not only advanced our understanding of nutrition, epidemiology, and global health but has also changed the paradigm, setting new directions for future research and education initiatives,” added Founding Dean Bernadette Boden Albala.
We are confident that under Dr. Liu’s leadership, the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics will continue to excel in its mission of understanding disease patterns, determinants, and health outcomes in populations. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Liu to Wen Public Health.
