Dr. Yang Liu

Yang Liu is the Director for Education at Beijing Guokr Interactive Information Technology Co. Ltd, with experience organizing science conferences and a passion for interdisciplinary collaborations. She received her B.S. in biology from Peking University, and got her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2010. She is also a science writer and translator. She is the joint-author of three popular science books and has translated The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and The Age of Empathy. After graduation she returned to Beijing to join Guokr.com. She has been organizing a science conference called “Time in a Nutshell” for two years, which has invited more than 50 top scientists to China to present to the general public. In 2011, Yang and curator Xiaodong Fu started “the 8^th Day”, a new project which facilitates communication between artists and scientists. Until now there have been more than 15 meet-ups and some artists have created new pieces with science themes. She also joined one of Guokr’s most popular projects, “Youth Talk”, to teach young people to share their specialties with others. Recently her work has focussed on publicizing MOOCs in China. Together with her Guokr team, she has established the most popular MOOC online community in China and has developed a series of online products to help Chinese students overcome language barriers and get used to new learning styles.