Bin Liu

Bin Liu is a chemist who is Professor and Provost's Chair at the National University of Singapore. Her research considers polymer chemistry and organic functional materials. She was appointed Vice President of Research and Technology in 2019. She was awarded the 2021 Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize. She was the Senior Vice Provost (Faculty & Institutional Development) from 2022 to 2023. Currently, she is the Deputy President of Research and Technology.

Early life and education Liu was encouraged to study science by her parents. She was trained in organic chemistry at Nanjing University, before moving to the National University of Singapore for graduate studies. Her doctoral research involved water-soluble conjugated polymers for organic electronic devices. At first, she struggled to successfully synthesise polymers, but she mastered it after one year. To ensure compatibility with multi-layer device fabrication protocols, Liu concentrated on the design of materials that are soluble in water and alcohols. They can serve as highly sensitive light-up molecular probes, which allow for the non-invasive tracking of analytes and biological processes in real-time. In 2014 she formed a spin-out company, Luminicell, which commercialises this technology.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Liu moved her laboratory-based work online.

Awards and honours 2008 National Science and Technology Young Scientist Award 2011 L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award 2018 Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers 2019 American Chemical Society Nano Lectureship Award 2020 Elected Fellow of the Singapore National Academy of Science 2021 Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize 2023, 2024 and 2025 Asian Scientist 100, Asian Scientist

Selected publications