K. J. Ray Liu
Founder and CTO (former Chairman and CEO) Origin | ADT Research
2022 IEEE President and CEO
Distinguished University Professor (Ret.) and Christine Kim Eminent Professor of Information Technology, University of Maryland, College Park
Dr. Liu was the founder (former Chairman/CEO) of Origin in 2013, an award-winning startup that pioneered ambient sensing and intelligence, by leveraging the ubiquitous radio waves around us as the new sixth sense to decipher human activities, secure home, provide better health care, automate intelligent space, without using any proprietary devices or wearables. The inventions/technology/products won many prestigious CES Innovation Awards, and among other awards. Origin was acquired by ADT in 2026. He continued to be CTO of Origin and led ADT Research.
Dr. Liu was 2022 IEEE President and CEO. He has served as the IEEE Vice President, Technical Activities (2019), Division IX Director of IEEE Board of Directors (2016-17), and the President of IEEE Signal Processing Society (2012-13). He was a founder of Asia-Pacific Association of Signal and Information Processing (APSIPA).
Dr. Liu was a Distinguished University Professor, Distinguished Scholar-Teacher, and Christine Kim Eminent Professor of Information Technology of the University of Maryland, College Park, from where he retired at the end of 2021 after over three decades of career in education. Over the past decades, he has trained over 76 doctoral/postdoctoral students, of which 13 are now IEEE fellows, about thirty of whom are with leading universities worldwide, leaders of major enterprises, and founders of successful startups that went IPO. According to the Mathematics Genealogy Project, he has had over 200+ Ph.D. descendants.
His research contributions encompass broad aspects of signal processing and communications, including wireless sensing; indoor positioning/tracking; wireless communications; network science; game theory; multimedia signal processing; information forensics and security; bioinformatics; and signal processing algorithms and architectures, in which he has published over 12 books, 900 refereed papers, and 250 patents.
Dr. Liu is a member of National Academy of Engineering (2024) for contributions to signal processing for wireless sensing and communications. He received 2026 IEEE Haraden Pratt Award "for transformative and impactful leadership", and is the recipient of two IEEE Technical Field Awards:
the 2021 IEEE Fourier Award for Signal Processing with the citation “For outstanding leadership in and pioneering contributions to signal processing for wireless sensing and communications”,
the 2016 IEEE Leon K. Kirchmayer Graduate Teaching Award "for exemplary teaching and curriculum development, inspirational mentoring of graduate students, and broad educational impact in signal processing and communications".
He is also the recipient of numerous honors and awards including,
IEEE Signal Processing Society 2014 Norbert Wiener Society Award for "influential technical contributions and profound leadership impact" (the highest award bestowed by SPS)
IEEE Signal Processing Society 2009 Claude Shannon-Harry Nyquist Technical Achievement Award "for pioneering and outstanding contributions for the advances of signal processing in multimedia forensics, security, and wireless communications".
Recognized by Web of Science as a Highly Cited Researcher (2001-2014, 2016-17), Dr. Liu is a fellow of the IEEE (2003), AAAS (2008), and National Academy of Inventors (2019). He is honored as 2021 Distinguished Alumni of National Taiwan University. His research was featured as one of seven technologies that IEEE believes will have the world changing implications on the way humans interact with machines, the world and each other, in honor of IEEE's 125th Anniversary.
He also received APSIPA 2018 Grand Award; 1994 National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award; IEEE Signal Processing Society Distinguished Lecturer; over a dozen of best paper/invention awards; IEEE Signal Processing Society Meritorious Service Award, IEEE Technical Activities Board Hall of Honors, and EURASIP Meritorious Service Award.
During his over three decades of career as an educator, he received various research and teaching recognitions from the University of Maryland, including Poole and Kent Senior Faculty Teaching Award (2005), Outstanding Faculty Research Award (2008), and Outstanding Service Award (2012), (each with one award per year from the entire college), all from A. James Clark School of Engineering; Invention of the Year Award (for three times) from University’s Office of Technology Commercialization, as well as the George Corcoran Award for outstanding contributions to electrical engineering education from Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, and the Outstanding Systems Engineering Faculty Award in recognition of outstanding contributions in interdisciplinary research from Institute for Systems Research.
He has delivered keynotes/plenaries in various international conferences and workshops and distinguished lectures in many universities/institutes worldwide. He has been consultants to industry and has served occasionally as expert consultant/witness for legal proceedings. In addition, Dr. Liu also served in the review panels of centers of excellence from various nations and agencies such as National Science Foundation and European Research Council, and for many countries.
Dr. Liu is a co-author of "Reciprocity, Evolution, and Decision Games in Network and Data Science", Cambridge University Press, 2021; "Wireless AI: Wireless Sensing, Positioning, IoT, and Communications", Cambridge University Press, 2019; "Behavior Dynamics in Media-Sharing Social Networks", Cambridge University Press, 2011; Cognitive Radio Networking and Security – A Game Theoretic View, Cambridge University Press, 2010; Cooperative Communications and Networking, Cambridge University Press, 2009; Resource Allocation for Wireless Networks: Basics, Techniques, and Applications, Cambridge University Press, 2008; Ultra-Wideband Communication Systems: The Multiband OFDM Approach, Wiley, 2007; Network-Aware Security for Group Communications, Springer, 2007; Multimedia Fingerprinting Forensics for Traitor Tracing, EURASIP Book Series on Signal Processing and Communication (Hindawi), 2005; Design of Digital Video Coding Systems: A Complete Compressed Domain Approach, Marcel Dekker, 2001; and a co-editor of Handbook on Array Processing and Sensor Networks, IEEE-Wiley, 2009 and High Performance VLSI Signal Processing: Volume I: System Design and Methodology; Vol. II: Algorithms, Architectures, and Applications, IEEE Press, 1998.
Dr. Liu received the B.S. degree from the National Taiwan University in 1983, and the Ph.D. degree from UCLA in 1990, both in electrical engineering.
Peter H. Siegel, "IEEE President K. J. Ray Liu, "Follow Multiple Paths, "Changing the World With Microwave Time Reversal Focusing", IEEE Journal of Microwaves, July 2022.
K. J. Ray Liu, Induction to Distinguished Alumni of National Taiwan University
K. J. Ray Liu, IEEE Presidential Campaign Message, 2020
IEEE Resolution in honor of 2022 IEEE President K. J. Ray Liu
