The honor was conferred April 3 in Beijing by Zu Qing Sun, vice president of the university.
Liu was recognized for his outstanding contributions to the understanding of brittle fracture in intermetallics and the alloy design of ductile intermetallic alloys for structural use. His interaction with the university, in particular his collaboration in the study of the mechanical properties of intermetallic alloys was cited.
The Beijing University of Science and Technology, sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of the Metallurgical Industry, is the leading material and metallurgical university in China.
Liu started at ORNL in 1967 in the Metals and Ceramics Division, where he served as a research staff member until 1982. He has been a group leader in the division's Alloying and Behavior Design Group since 1983. He was named a corporate fellow in 1985 and senior fellow in 1997.
In 1995, Science Watch magazine ranked Liu as the fifth most highly cited author among publishers of papers in all journals of materials science and metallurgy for the years 1990 to 1994. His research led to 19 patents being granted from 1973 to 1996.
Liu received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from National Taiwan University and a master's degree and doctorate in engineering and materials science from Brown University.
He and his wife, Ta-Chang, live in Oak Ridge. They have two children, Evelyn and Kent.
ORNL, one of DOE's multiprogram national research and development facilities, is managed by Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation.