• Ph.D. University of Toronto, Geography, 1982
• M.Sc. University of Toronto, Geography, 1978
• B.S. Sc. Geography with First Class Honor), 1974
  

• Thematic: Paleotempestology, Coastal paleoecology, Ice-core paleoclimatology, Global environmental change, Palynology and lake-sediments
• Regional: U.S. Gulf coast and Atlantic coast, Caribbean region and Central America, South America (Andes and Amazon Basin), Tibetan Plateau, Central Asia (Mongolia and Kazakhstan), China, Africa
  

• 2006-11 Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), Collaborative Research Network grant (CRN II 050) ($698,300). "Paleotempestology of the Caribbean region: A multi-proxy, multi-site study of the spatial and temporal variability of Caribbean hurricane activity". This is a 5-year collaborative research project involving 12 co-PIs from four different countries in the Americas (PI: Kam-biu Liu)
  
• 2006-07 LSU Faculty Research Grant ($10,000). “Climate change, sea level rise, and hurricanes/ typhoons in two of the world’s largest river systems: developing comparative ecological study of the Yangtze and Mississippi River deltas”. (PI: Kam-biu Liu; co-PI: W.J. Platt)
  
• 2006-08 National Science Foundation (NSF), research grant ($139,991), Geography & Regional Science Program, BCS-0623514. "Collaborative Research: Bioclimatic reconstruction of the past 50,000 years from eolian sequences in westerlies-dominated Central Asia ". (PI: Kam-biu Liu; collaborative PI: Z.D. Feng, Montclair State Univ., total award for LSU and MSU: $289,897)
  
• 2006-08 National Science Foundation (NSF), Doctoral dissertation research improvement (DDRI) grant ($11,940), Geography and Regional Science Program, BCS-0623287. "Tracking Donna across the northern Caribbean: Developing a modern analog methodology for paleotempestology" (PI: Kam-biu Liu; co-PI: Jason Knowles, Ph.D. student)
  
• 2006-07 National Science Foundation (NSF), SGER grant ($32,658), Division of Environmental Biology (DEB-0612477). "Do hurricanes spur responses of coastal communities to changing sea level?" (PI: William J. Platt; co-PIs: Kam-biu Liu, Julie Whitbeck, University of New Orleans; Loretta Battaglia, Southern Illinois University; total award for LSU, UNO, and SIU: $50,000)
  
• 2006-08 National Science Foundation (NSF), Doctoral dissertation research improvement (DDRI) grant ($11,760), Geography and Regional Science Program, BCS-0602554. "Proxy records of paleohurricane activities for the western and southern Caribbean" (PI: Kam-biu Liu; co-PI: Terrence McCloskey, Ph.D. student)
  
• 2006-09 National Science Foundation (NSF), research grant ($132,251), Human and Social Dynamics (HSD)-Agents of Change Program, HSD-0527620. "Paleoclimatic change, landscape evolution, and cultural transformations in far western Tibet". (lead PI: Mark S. Aldenderfer; co-PIs: Jonathan Overpeck, Julie Cole, Jon Pelletier: University of Arizona; Kam-biu Liu, LSU; total award for UA and LSU: $725,789)
  
• 2005-07 National Science Foundation (NSF), research grant ($92,292), Geography & Regional Science Program, BCS-0452399. "Collaborative Research: An integrative study of vulnerability and cultural response to hurricane hazards among indigenous populations on the Miskito coast of Honduras and Nicaragua ". (PI: Kam-biu Liu; collaborative PIs: Andy Reese and David Cochran, University of Southern Mississippi; total award for LSU and USM: $199,868)
  
• 2005-07 National Science Foundation (NSF), Doctoral dissertation research improvement (DDRI) grant ($11,925), Geography and Regional Science Program, BCS-0503334. "Vegetation change and land degradation in the Lake Baringo ecosystem, Kenya, East Africa: Evidence from the paleorecord " (PI: Kam-biu Liu; co-PI: Lawrence Kiage, Ph.D. student)
  
• 2005-07 Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR), Risk Prediction Initiative (RPI) research grant ($40,000), "Hurricane Ivan as modern analog to prehistoric hurricane strikes". (PI: Kam-biu Liu)
  
• 2004-07 National Science Foundation (NSF), research grant ($125,081), Earth System History Program, ATM-0402475. "Collaborative Research: Holocene Climatic Changes in the Mongolian Plateau". (PI: Kam-biu Liu; collaborative PIs: Zhaodong Feng, Monclair State University; Alexander Prokopenko, University of South Carolina; total award for LSU, MSU, & USC: $370,641)
  
• 2002-06 National Science Foundation (NSF), research grant ($167,730), co-funded by the Geography & Regional Science Program and the Climate Dynamics Program, BCS-0213884. "Collaborative Research: The role of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) in modulating major hurricane activity in the U.S.: Interannual to millennial timescales". (PI: Kam-biu Liu; collaborative PI: James Elsner, Florida State University; total award for LSU & FSU: $299,921)
  
  

A. Books

Murnane, R. and Liu, K.B. (eds.), 2004. Hurricanes and Typhoons: Past, Present, and Future. Columbia University Press, New York, 462 pages.

B. Refereed Journal Articles and Book Chapters

• Liu, K.B., 2007. “Uncovering prehistoric hurricane activity”, American Scientist 95: 126-133.
  
• Liu, K.B., 2007. “Paleotempestology”. In: Elias, S. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 1978-1986.
  
• Liu, K.B., Reese, C.A., and Thompson, L.G., 2007. “A potential pollen proxy for ENSO derived from the Sajama ice core”, Geophysical Research Letters 34, L09504, doi:10.1029/2006GL029018
  
• Kiage, L.M., Liu, K.B., Walker, N., Lam, N.S.N., Huh, O., 2007. “Recent land-cover/use change associated with land degradation in the Lake Baringo catchment, Kenya, East Africa: evidence from Landsat TM and ETM+”, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 1-25, doi: 10.1080/01431160701241753
  
• Tornqvist, T.E., Paola, C., Parker, G., Liu, K.B., Mohrig, D., Holbrook, J.M., and Twilley, R.R., 2007, “Comment on ‘Wetland Sedimentation from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita’”, Science 316: 201. (Full text at www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/316/5822/201b)
  
• Cheung, K.F., Tang, L.J., Donnelly, J.P., Scileppi, E.M., Liu, K.B., Mao, X.Z., Houston, S.H., and Murnane, R.J., 2007. “Numerical modeling and field evidence of coastal overwash in southern New England from Hurricane Bob and implications for paleotempestology”, Journal of Geophysical Research 112, F03024, doi: 10.1029/2006JF000612
  
• Frappier, A., Knutson, T., Liu, K.B., and Emanuel, K., 2007. “Perspective: coordinating paleoclimate research on tropical cyclones with hurricane-climate theory and modelling”, Tellus A, doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0870.2007.00250.x
  
• Brklacich, M., Brown, I.F., Campos, E.J.D., Krusche, A., Lavell, A., Liu, K.B., Jimenez-Osornio, J., Reyes-Knoche, S., Wood, C., 2007. “Stakeholders and global environmental change science”, In: Tiessen, H., Brklacich, M., Breulmann, G., and Menezes, R.S.C. (eds.), Communicating Global Change Science to Society: An Assessment and Case Studies. Island Press, Washington, D.C., pp. 21-34.
  
• Lu, H.-Y., Wu, N.-Q., Liu, K.B., Jiang, H., and Liu, T.-S., 2007. “Phytoliths as quantitative indicators for the reconstruction of past environmental conditions in China II: palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in the Loess Plateau”, Quaternary Science Reviews 26: 759-772.
• Feng, Z.D., Tang, L.Y., Ma, Y.Z., Zhai, Z.X., Wu, H.N., Li, F., Zou, S.B., Yang, Q.L., Wang, W.G., Derbyshire, E., and Liu, K.B., 2007. “Holocene vegetation variations and associated environmental changes during marine isotope stage 3 in the western part of the Chinese Loess Plateau”, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 246: 278-291.
  
• Feng, Z.D., Zhai, X.W., Ma, Y.Z., Huang, C.Q., Wang, W.G., Zhang, H.C., Khosbayar, P., Narantsetseg, T., Liu, K.B., and Rutter, N.W., 2007. “Eolian environmental changes in the northern Mongolian Plateau during the past ~ 35,000 yr”, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 245: 505-517.
  
• Kiage, L.M. and Liu, K.B., 2006. “Late Quaternary paleoenvironmental changes in East Africa: A review of multi-proxy evidence from palynology, lake sediments, and associated records”, Progress in Physical Geography 30: 633-658.
  
• Fogarty, E.A., Elsner, J.B., Jagger, T.H., Liu, K.B., and Louie, K.S., 2006. “Variations in typhoon landfalls over China”, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences 23(5): 665-677.
  
• Morrill, C., Overpeck, J.T., Cole, J.E., Liu, K.B., Shen, C., and Tang, L., 2006. “Holocene variations in the Asian monsoon inferred from the geochemistry of lake sediments in central Tibet”, Quaternary Research 65(2): 232-243.
  
• Shen, C., Liu, K.B., Tang, L., and Overpeck, J.T., 2006. “Quantitative relationships between modern pollen rain and climate in the Tibetan Plateau”, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 140: 61-77.
  
• Feng, Z.D., Tang, L.Y., Wang, H.B., Ma, Y.Z., and Liu, K.B., 2006. “Holocene vegetation variations and associated environmental changes in the western part of the Chinese Loess Plateau”, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 241: 440-456.
  
• Lu, H.-Y., Wu, N.-Q., Yang, X.-D., Jiang, H., Liu, K.B., Liu, T.-S., 2006. “Phytoliths as quantitative indicators for the reconstruction of past environmental conditions in China I: phytolith-based transfer functions”, Quaternary Science Reviews 25: 945-959.
  
• Liu, K.B., Reese, C.A., and Thompson, L.G., 2005. “Ice-core pollen record of climatic changes in the central Andes during the last 400 years”, Quaternary Research 64(2): 272-278.
  
• Lu, H.Y., Yang, X.Y., Ye, M.L., Liu, K.B., Xia, Z.K., Ren, X.Y., and Cai, L.H., Wu, N.Q., and Liu, T.S., 2005. “Millet noodles in Late Neolithic China”, Nature 437: 967-968.
  
• Lu, H.Y. and Liu, K.B., 2005. “Phytolith indicators of coastal environmental changes and hurricane overwash deposition”, The Holocene 15 (7): 965-972.
  
• Overpeck, J.T., Liu, K.B., Morrill, C. Cole, J., Shen, C., Anderson, D., and Tang, L., 2005. “Holocene environmental change in the Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau region: Lake sediments and the future”. In: U.M. Huber, H.K.M. Bugmann, and M.A. Reasoner (eds.), Global Change and Mountain Regions: An Overview of Current Knowledge. Springer, Boston, pp. 83-92.
  
• Shen, C.M., Tang, L.Y., Wang, S.M., Li, C.H., and Liu, K.B., 2005. “Pollen records and time scale for the RM core of the Zoige Basin, northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau”, Chinese Science Bulletin 50(6): 553-562.
  
• Reese , C.A. and Liu, K.B., 2005. “Interannual variability in pollen dispersal and deposition on the tropical Quelccaya Ice Cap”, Professional Geographer 57(2): 185-197.
  
• Reese , C.A. and Liu, K.B., 2005. “A modern pollen rain study from the central Andes region of South America”, Journal of Biogeography 32: 709-718.
  
• Liu, K.B., 2004. “Paleotempestology: Principles, methods, and examples from Gulf coast lake-sediments”. In: Murnane, R. and Liu, K.B. (eds.): Hurricanes and Typhoons: Past, Present, and Future. Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 13-57.
  
• Louie, K.S. and Liu, K.B., 2004. “Ancient records of typhoons in Chinese historical documents”. In Murnane, R. and Liu, K.B. (eds.): Hurricanes and Typhoons: Past, Present, and Future. Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 222-248.
  
• Murnane, R. and Liu, K.B., 2004. "Conclusion". In Murnane, R. and Liu, K.B. (eds.): Hurricanes and Typhoons: Past, Present, and Future. Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 441-446.
  
• Liu, K.B., 2004. “Paleotempestology: Geographic solutions to hurricane hazard assessment and risk prediction”. In: D. Janelle, B. Warf, and K. Hansen (Eds), WorldMinds: Geographical Perspectives on 100 Problems. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 443-448.

MEDIA L INKS

My various research activities have been featured in many national and international newspapers, magazines, websites, and radio and TV broadcasts. A few recent examples:

German ZDF TV, documentary program on hurricanes and paleotempestology, “Geschichtsbuch der Stürme: Die Wissenschaft der Paläotempestologie” (10/11/06)
http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/15/0,1872,3986767,00.html

New Scientist, podcast on paleotempestology: “Speaking in tongues” (6/9/06)
http://www.newscientist.com/podcast.ns

BBC radio: “Oldest noodles unearthed in China” (10/12/05) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4335160.stm

NPR (National Public Radio): “Neolithic noodles unearthed in China” (10/12/05)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4957805#email

Discovery Channel, documentary program on “Everything You Need to Know: Hurricanes” (3/8/06)

Discovery Channel, documentary program on “Killer Hurricane: Anatomy of Katrina” (9/2/05)

National Geographic TV channel, “Violent Earth” documentary program (5/8/05)

U.S. News & World Report, “A disaster long in the making” (9/4/06), pp. 45-46.
http://usnews.com

National Geographic News (6/7/04, 6/8/04)
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0608_040608_hurricanes.html,
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0607_040607_hurricanehistory.html