Postdoctoral fellows

We currently have specific postdoc positions available in 1) Solving epitope-specific antibody generation with both evolution and design, 2) Strategic generation of domain-specific evolutionary data for ML and protein design, 3) Rapid enzyme evolution, including artificial metalloenzymes to observe and probe the evolutionary emergence of allostery, and 4) Gene birth: can various classes of random sequences, shaped by selective constraints of intracellular compatibility, evolve into well-behaved proteins? If you are interested in these or other topics, please contact Prof. Liu by e-mail with your CV and a brief description of your interest.

Graduate students

We are always looking for thoughtful, dedicated, and creative graduate students to join our growing team. We accept graduate students primarily through the following UC Irvine graduate programs: the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, the Chemistry Graduate Program, the Cellular and Molecular Biosciences Program, and the Mathematical, Computational and Systems Biology Program. Please contact Prof. Liu with inquiries.

Staff

We are not currently recruiting new staff.

Undergraduate researchers

Our undergraduate researcher mentoring capacity is currently full. However, if there is a specific research idea you are passionate about that is best explored in our group, please contact Prof. Liu by e-mail with your CV and a brief description of your interest.

Training philosophy

Our training goal is to ensure that every student and postdoc leaving the lab has the capabilities, ambition, and scientific maturity needed for an impactful career. To do this, we remind ourselves of the following principles:

1) Researchers need purpose and autonomy to flourish. We strive to ensure that researchers in our group are working on projects whose goals are meaningful and important. We strive to give researchers in our group freedom and autonomy in developing their projects and ideas, offering mentorship with that in mind.

2) Mentorship is an essential part of a good research program. Each member of the group constructs an individualized research and career development plan with Prof. Liu and has regular meetings with Prof. Liu to ensure that they are on track and developing to their full potential. Senior graduate students and postdoctoral fellows help Prof. Liu mentor junior students.

3) Excellent scientists work best in the company of other excellent scientists. We strive to recruit the best to our group and maintain a culture of inclusive excellence. We understand that diversity promotes creative and meritorious science, is a critical part of a healthy lab culture, and is also an end in itself. We strive to build, maintain, and nurture diversity in our lab, department, university, and broader scientific community.

4) There is no substitute for hard work. The more time and energy one dedicates to something, the better they get at it. We encourage members of the group to spend as much time as they can on what they find most meaningful in research and life.

5) Science thrives in a fun, supportive, and interactive environment. We strive to build a lab environment full of excitement, energy, collaboration, support, and enjoyment.