Dr. Sheng Liu received her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 2014, where she trained under Dr. Keith Lidke. During her doctoral research, she developed several advanced optical tools and algorithms, including a phase retrieval algorithm for dual-focal plane super-resolution microscopy, a spherical prism spectrometer for hyperspectral line-scanning microscopy, and a single-objective light-sheet microscope.
From 2015 to 2020, Dr. Liu was a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Fang Huang’s lab at Purdue University, focusing on high-precision localization algorithms for 4Pi single-molecule localization microscopy (4Pi-SMLM). She then joined Dr. Jonas Ries’ group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Germany (2020–2022), where she investigated motor protein dynamics in live cells using MINFLUX microscopy and developed a software package for extracting point spread functions from various single-molecule localization microscopes.
Between 2020 and 2025, Dr. Liu served as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UNM. Her work spanned the development of a Raman microscope, a remote-focusing light-sheet microscope, and a smart microscope for single-particle tracking. She also contributed to quantum metrology research, extending quantum Fisher information calculations to dipole emitters.
In August 2025, Dr. Liu joined Clemson University as an Assistant Professor, where she continues to pursue innovations in single-molecule fluorescence microscopy.