Simon Liu, Ph.D.

Simon Y. Liu is currently serving as acting administrator for the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS). For the past six years, Liu served as associate administrator for Research Management and Operations.

He previously served as Director of the National Agricultural Library (NAL), which serves as the central library for the USDA and is one of the four National Libraries of the United States. NAL is the world’s largest and most accessible research library specializing in agriculture.

Before joining NAL, Liu served as associate director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and director of the NLM Computer and Communications System. Prior to his service at NLM, he held leadership positions with the US Departments of Justice and Treasury, following work in the private sector where he led information system development and space mission studies to support NASA mission and operations.

He attended university in his native Taiwan and pursued graduate studies in the United States, where he earned master’s degrees in computer science, business administration and government from Indiana University, the University of Maryland, and Johns Hopkins University. He has earned two doctoral degrees: an Ed.D in higher education administration and a Ph.D. in computer science from George Washington University. He also serves as an adjunct faculty member with graduate school appointments at several of these institutions.

Liu is active in professional societies and associations and have served as the editor-in-chief of an information technology magazine and editor of four journals in the past 20 years. Liu has published a book and more than 80 book chapters, journal articles and conference papers.