Academic Staff

Dr. George Zhizhao Liu is an internationally acclaimed scholar, research pioneer, and technical leader in the fields of Geomatics, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) meteorology, AI and NWP-based extreme rainfall forecasting, satellite data assimilation into AI and NWP (Numerical Weather Prediction) models, satellite remote sensing, and ionospheric space weather. He currently serves as a Professor in the Department of Department of Land Surveying and Geospatial Science (LSGS) within the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). Standing at the intersection of elite academic research, global industrial innovation, and high-level government advisory, Dr. Liu concurrently holds several prestigious appointments. He is the Chief Scientist at the Meteorological Observation Center of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary, Canada, and a designated Scientific Advisor to the Hong Kong Observatory, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

Dr. Liu’s academic journey began in China, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Surveying Engineering from the Jiangxi University of Science and Technology in 1994, followed by a Master of Science in Geodesy from Wuhan University in 1997. After serving as a Lecturer at Wuhan University, he relocated to Canada to pursue advanced studies at the University of Calgary, graduating with a PhD in Geomatics Engineering in 2004. Recognizing his exceptional research potential, he was awarded the highly competitive Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Calgary, which he completed in 2005. During his time in Canada, Dr. Liu's scholarly excellence was validated by numerous honors, including the prestigious Alberta Ingenuity Scholarship and the J.B. Hyne Research Innovation Award, the latter recognizing him as the single recipient within the university's Faculty of Engineering.

Dr. Liu is distinguished as one of the very few geomatics academics in the Greater China region to possess a deeply rooted, elite industrial background in North America. His industrial career is highlighted by his tenure as a Research Scientist at Leica Geosystems Ltd. (Canada) from 2005 to 2007. During his time at Leica, he was awarded the Alberta Ingenuity Fund’s Industrial Associateship—making him the first winner of this prestigious award in the history of Leica Geosystems. He led the team and developed the Leica’s first commercially industrialized GPS Precise Point Positioning (PPP) system in early 2000s, which was probably the world’s first industrialized GPS PPP system. Following his breakthrough work at Leica, Dr. Liu continued to shape the North American geomatics sector, serving as a Geomatics Engineer at Baseband Technology Inc. and as a GNSS Specialist at Point Inc. in Calgary. This rich tapestry of industrial experience gave him a unique advantage, allowing him to seamlessly bridge the gap between theoretical geodesy and commercial, high-precision engineering.

In June 2009, Dr. Liu returned to academia, joining The Hong Kong Polytechnic University as an Assistant Professor. Through a trajectory of rapid and meritorious promotion, he was elevated to Associate Professor in 2015 and achieved the rank of Full Professor in July 2020. At PolyU, Dr. Liu established the Micro-Laboratory of Atmospheric Research and Geomatics Engineering (Micro-LARGE) and serves as the Director of the Hydrographic Surveying Laboratory. His research group is internationally renowned for its work in GNSS-based atmospheric sounding, satellite water vapor retrieval calibration, and space weather mitigation.

As of early 2026, Dr. Liu has compiled an extraordinary publication record comprising over 136 journal papers, including 117 in elite SCI-indexed journals, and more than 100 conference papers/abstracts. According to Google Scholar public metrics, his global research impact is exceptionally prominent, ranking him 3rd globally in the field of "troposphere" and 5th globally in "water vapor." He also ranks among the top international peers in the fields of "GPS" (50th), "Numerical Weather Prediction" (52nd), "ionosphere" (55th), and "GNSS" (60th).

Over his career, Dr. Liu has secured more than HK$ 95 million in research funding as Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI. In 2012, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) presented him with the inaugural Early Career Award, a highly competitive honor with a success rate of just 5.69% across Hong Kong. His General Research Fund (GRF) projects in 2016 and 2017 were recognized as the single largest GRF grants awarded within PolyU’s Faculty of Construction and Environment for those respective years. Internationally, his collaborative work was nominated by the Hong Kong Observatory for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) "Norbert Gerbier-MUMM International Award for 2015," cementing his research as internationally transformative.

Dr. Liu’s standing as an international authority is demonstrated by his editorial contributions. He is one of only five scholars globally who concurrently serve on the editorial boards of the three premier satellite navigation journals: GPS Solutions, Satellite Navigation, and the Journal of Global Positioning Systems (where he is the Associate Editor-in-Chief). Furthermore, Dr. Liu is the Founding President of the Hong Kong Chapter of the Canadian Institute of Geomatics (CIG), a Fellow of the Hong Kong Meteorological Society (FHKMetS), and a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineering Surveyors (FHKIES). He also serves on the prestigious Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Reference Upper Air Network (GRUAN) Task Team under WMO, UNESCO, and ICSU.

As an educator, Dr. Liu is passionately committed to training highly qualified personnel (HQP). His laboratory has nurtured future scientific leaders, including three recipients of the PolyU Faculty Awards for Outstanding PhD Thesis—representing an astonishing one-third of all such awardees in the Department of LSGS, and three winners of the Zhu Kezhen Prize, the highest honor awarded by the Hong Kong Meteorological Society to a young research student.

Dr. Liu has secured 10 highly prestigious General Research Fund (GRF) projects from the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong. This exceptional funding track record places him equally at the 38th rank among all academic staff across PolyU for the 2006–2026 period, representing the upper echelon of researchers at the university. This clearly is a testament to his sustained research excellence and competitive edge. His success rate in securing Hong Kong RGC GRF fund is approximately two times of the average rate of all the universities in Hong Kong. Dr. George Zhizhao Liu continues to pioneer research that enhances climate resilience, weather forecasting accuracy, and high-precision spatial informatics worldwide.

• Bachelor of Engineering, Southern Institute of Metallurgy
• Master of Engineering, Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping
• Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Calgary