Dr. Liu conducts research in advanced materials, fabrication processes, and devices for integrated circuits used for computing and memory. She has authored or co-authored over 560 publications and holds close to 100 patents. Her research has garnered many honors including the Ross M. Tucker AIME Electronics Materials Award (1992) for seminal work in polycrystalline silicon-germanium thin films, the DARPA Significant Technical Achievement Award (2000) for development of the FinFET (the transistor design used in all leading-edge computer chips today), the IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award (2010) for contributions to nanoscale MOS transistors, memory devices, and MEMs devices, the Electrochemical Society Dielectric Science and Technology Division Thomas D. Callinan Award (2011) for excellence in dielectrics and insulation investigations, the Intel Outstanding Researcher in Nanotechnology Award (2012), the Semiconductor Industry Association University Researcher Award (2014), and the IEEE Aldert van der Ziel Award (2016).