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Professor of Sociology, Michigan State University

Hui Liu is a Professor of Sociology at Michigan State University. Before joining MSU in 2008, she received her B.A. and M.A. in economics from Nankai University, China, her M.S. in Statistics, and Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Liu’s current research interests include population health and mortality, family and marriage, bio-demography of aging and the life course, LGBT population, sexuality, and quantitative methodology. Specifically, Dr. Liu has focused on using innovative quantitative methods to develop, test, and promote scientific understanding of marriage and family processes related to population health and well-being. Her interests in marriage also extend to other “marriage-like” intimate relationships such as same-sex cohabitation and sexual relationships, and how they are linked to population health and well-being. Dr. Liu’s research has been published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Journal of Marriage and Family, Demography, Social Science and Medicine, Social Science Research, Population Research and Policy Review, and Structural Equation Modeling. Dr. Liu has currently received an NIH Career Award (Mentored Research Scientist Development Award) to investigate the biological links between marriage and health using interdisciplinary approaches. Her other current work includes an NIH funded project that examines child health disparities of same-sex families at the population level. She was the 2013 winner of the Outstanding Professional Paper Award from the National Council on Family Relations. She was also a Butler-Williams Scholar of 2014 supported by the National Institute on Aging. The relevance and timeliness of Dr. Liu’s research is reflected in the media attention it has received. Her research has been widely reported in prominent national and international news outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, USA Today, US News and World Report, TIME, ABC News, CBS News, Los Angeles Times, Daily Mail, Sydney Morning Herald, The Times of India, China Daily and Iran Daily.