Emeritus Professor 2022
Citation delivered by Senior Professor Gursel Alici, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences at the University of Wollongong on the occasion of the admission of Hua Kun Liu as an Emeritus Professor of the University on 2 May 2022.
Deputy-Chancellor, I present Distinguished Professor Hua Kun Liu AM.
Since joining UOW in 1994, Hua Kun Liu has had an outstanding career and made significant contributions to UOW. Hua has played a significant role in raising the profile of Australia’s research in energy materials. Her work is world renowned. Her dedication to UOW and Australia has seen Hua become an international leader in the development and commercialisation of energy materials. Founder of the renowned energy materials research program within the Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM) at UOW, Hua has an outstanding international record in energy storage material.
Hua has made it her life’s goal to dedicate herself to ‘this country’ and has gone on to deliver and be a leader in her research field. Her work has been recognized by the award of a Doctor of Science degree in 2017. In addition, Hua has been an outstanding female role model and dedicated mentor to students and researchers throughout her time at UOW. She has mentored, supervised and co-supervised 95 PhD students, 40 Postdoctoral Fellows and numerous visiting Fellows.
Promoted to Professor in 1999, Distinguished Professor in 2014, and awarded the Doctor of Science in 2017. Hua established and grew her energy materials research group, leading it to become the largest and most influential in the country. Working in lithium-ion battery development Hua’s energy materials research group became one of the top research groups in the world. Leading pioneering work on new battery systems and the sustained quality of the group’s research is exemplified with Hua being awarded four successive highly competitive Australian Research Council (ARC) Australian Professorial Fellowships from 1994-2010.
Hua has overseen significant breakthroughs in the development of innovative technologies for a new generation of clean energy applications, in particular aimed at achieving high energy density, high power density and long cycle life lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles. As well as fundamental investigations into the electrochemical and physical properties of energy materials, Hua successfully commercialised a number of innovations, applied in industry, from her laboratory. Her work has made sustained and major contributions in her field, to UOW, Australia and the world.
Hua’s amazing dedication is demonstrated by her very long list of significant and high-level awards. These include her election as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering (ATSE) and the University of Wollongong Vice-Chancellor's Award for Research Excellence for Senior Researcher in 2013. Completing more than 60 research grants, Hua has been named a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics consecutively since 2016 and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by ASTS in 2018. Hua Kun Liu was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2022.
Hua’s outstanding career with UOW has seen her made an enormous contribution both in her field of energy storage materials and to UOW through excellence in research and teaching. Hua’s research work is only one aspect of the contributions she has made to UOW. The support and guidance Hua has provided to her students is equally impressive and with awards, contributions and achievements too numerous to list, it is fair to say that her rich gift to the University through nearly three decades of outstanding service will surely be continued through this award. To this day, Hua continues in her projects and working with students at UOW, performing at the same high level that she has consistently delivered throughout her career.
Deputy Chancellor, Hua’s tireless efforts have made an outstanding contribution both in her field of energy storage materials and to UOW. This award will continue her strong connection to the University, ensuring UOW, its staff and students will benefit from her expertise and guidance into the future.
It is a privilege to present Distinguished Professor Hua Kun Liu AM to be admitted as an Emeritus Professor of the University of Wollongong.