LSU Department of Geography & Anthropology

LSU Department of Geography & Anthropology

Kam-biu Liu

PERSONAL INFORMATION
James J. Parsons Professor of Geography
Department of Geography and Anthropology
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Phone: 225-578-6136 ~ FAX: 225-578-4420
E-mail: kliu1@lsu.edu

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Ph.D., University of Toronto, 1982.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Click here to see Dr. Liu's paleotempestology publications and mass media coverage.

Topical: Quaternary Paleoecology, Paleotempestology (Hurricanes), Palynology, Paleoclimatology, Global Change, Lake Sedimentation, Ice-core Research, Paleolimnology, Biogeography, and Medical Geography.

Regional: China (especially Tibetan Plateau), South and Central America (especially Amazon Basin), American South (especially Gulf of Mexico coast), and Canada.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Murnane, R. and K.B. Liu, eds., 2004. Hurricanes and Typhoons: Past, Present, and Future. Columbia University Press, New York.

Liu, K.B., 2004. “Paleotempestology: Principles, Methods, and Examples from Gulf Coast Lake Sediments,” in Murnane, R. and K.B. Liu, eds., Hurricanes and Typhoons: Past, Present, and Future. Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 13-57.

Louie, K.S. and Liu, K.B., 2004. “Ancient Records of Typhoons in Chinese Historical Documents,” in Murnane, R. and K.B. Liu, eds., Hurricanes and Typhoons: Past, Present, and Future. Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 222-48.

Liu, K.B., 2004. “Paleotempestology: Geographic Solutions to Hurricane Hazard Assessment and Risk Prediction,” in Janelle, D., B. Warf, and K. Hansen, eds., WorldMinds: Geographical Perspectives on 100 Problems. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 443-8.

Elsner, J.B. and K.B. Liu, 2003. “Examining the ENSO-Typhoon Hypothesis,” Climate Research 25(1):43-54.

Reese, C.A., K.B. Liu, and K.R. Mountain, 2003. “Pollen Dispersal and Deposition on the Ice Cap of Volcan Parinacota, Southwestern Bolivia,” Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 35(4):58-63.

Liu, K.B., H.Y. Lu, and C.M. Shen, 2003. “Assessing the Vulnerability of the Alabama Gulf Coast to Intense Hurricane Strikes and Forest Fires in the Light of Long-term Climatic Changes,” Ning, Z.H., R.E. Turner, T. Doyle, and K. Abdollahi, eds., Integrated Assessment of the Climate Change Impacts on the Gulf Coast Region, Gulf Coast Regional Climate Change Council, Baton Rouge, pp. 223-30.

Lu, H.Y. and K.B. Liu, 2003. “Phytoliths of Common Grasses in the Coastal Environments of Southeastern USA,” Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 58(3):587-600.

Louie, K.S. and K.B. Liu, 2003. “Earliest Historical Records of Typhoons in China,” Journal of Historical Geography 29(3):299-316.

Lu, H.Y. and K.B. Liu, 2003. “Morphological Variations of Lobate Phytoliths from Grasses in China and the Southeastern United States,” Diversity and Distributions 9:73-87.

Reese, C.A. and K.B. Liu, 2002. “Pollen Dispersal and Deposition on the Quelccaya Ice Cap,” Physical Geography 23:44-58.

Maxwell, A. and K.B. Liu, 2002. “Late Quaternary Pollen and Associated Records from the Monsoonal Areas of Continental South and SE Asia,” in Kershaw, P., B. David, N. Tapper, D. Penny, and J. Brown, eds., Bridging Wallace’s Line: The Environmental and Cultural History and Dynamics of the SE-Asian-Australian Region, Advances in GeoEcology 34, Catena Verlag, Reiskirchen, pp. 189-228.

Liu, K.B., C. Shen, and K.S. Louie, 2001. “A 1000-year History of Typhoon Landfalls in Guangdong, Southern China, Reconstructed from Chinese Historical Documentary Records,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 91:453-64.

Liu, K.B. and M.L. Fearn, 2000. “Reconstruction of Prehistoric Landfall Frequencies of Catastrophic Hurricanes in Northwestern Florida from Lake Sediment Records,” Quaternary Research 54:238-45.

Liu, K.B. and M.L. Fearn, 2000. “Holocene History of Catastrophic Hurricane Landfalls along the Gulf of Mexico Coast Reconstructed from Coastal Lake and Marsh Sediments,” in Ning, Z.H. and K.K. Abdollahi, eds., Current Stresses and Potential Vulnerabilities: Implications of Global Change for the Gulf Coast Region of the United States, Gulf Coast Regional Climate Change Council, Franklin Press, Baton Rouge, pp. 38-47.

Elsner, J.B., K.B. Liu, and B.L. Kocher, 2000. “Spatial Variations in Major U.S. Hurricane Activity: Statistics and a Physical Mechanism,” Journal of Climate 13:2293-305.

Murnane, R.J., C. Barton, E. Collins, J. Donnelly, J. Elsner, K. Emanuel, I. Ginis, S. Howard, C. Landsea, K.B. Liu, D. Malmquist, M. McKay, A. Michaels, N. Nelson, J. O’Brien, D. Scott, T. Webb III, 2000. “Model Estimates Hurricane Wind Speed Probabilities,” EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 81(38):433-8.

Yu, G. and 30 others arranged alphabetically (including K.B. Liu), 2000. “Paleovegetation of China: A Pollen Data-based Synthesis for the Mid-Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum,” Journal of Biogeography 27:635-64.

SUPPORTED RESEARCH
2004. National Science Foundation (NSF), research grant ($125,081), Earth System History Program, ATM-0402475. “Holocene Climatic Changes in the Mongolian Plateau.” (co-PI) (Duration: 2 years, July 2004 - June 2006) (Part of collaborative research project with Zhaodong Feng, Monclair State University, and Alexander Prokopenko, University of South Carolina co-PIs; total award for LSU, MSU, & USC: $370,641).

2002. National Science Foundation (NSF), research grant ($167,730), co-funded by the Geography & Regional Science Program and the Climate Dynamics Program, BCS-0213884. “The role of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) in modulating major hurricane activity in the U.S.: Interannual to millennial timescales.” (co-PI) (Duration: 3 years, August 2002 - July 2005) (Part of collaborative research project with James Elsner, Florida State University, co-PI; total award for LSU & FSU: $299,921).

2002. Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR), Risk Prediction Initiative (RPI) research grant ($35,000), “New estimates of landfall probabilities for catastrophic hurricanes along the U.S. Gulf coast.” (P.I.) (Duration: 12 months, October 1, 2002-September 30, 2003).

2002. National Science Foundation (NSF) Doctoral dissertation improvement supplement grant ($4,000), Geography and Regional Science Program, BCS-0217321. “Pollen dispersal and deposition on tropical Andean ice caps: Quelccaya, Peru, and Nevada Sajama, Bolivia.” (with Carl A. Reese, Ph.D. student) (8 months, May - December 2002).

2001. National Science Foundation (NSF) Doctoral dissertation improvement grant ($9,905), Geography and Regional Science Program and Americas Program, BCS-0117338. “Pollen dispersal and deposition on tropical Andean ice caps: Quelccaya, Peru, and Nevada Sajama, Bolivia.” (with Carl A. Reese, Ph.D. student) (18 months, July 2001 - December 2002).

2001. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), research grant, Subcontract through Southern University ($15,000), “Vulnerability of the Alabama Gulf Coast to intense hurricane strikes and forest fires in the light of long-term climatic changes.” (P.I.) (March – July, 2001).

2001. National Park Service (NPS) research contract ($2,500), “Pollen analysis of soil samples from the Melrose flower garden, Natchez National Historic Park, Mississippi.” (P.I.) (Duration: 12 months, June 2001 - June 2002).

2000. National Science Foundation (NSF), research grant ($104,049), co-funded by Earth System History Program and the Office of Polar Programs, ATM-0081941. “Century-scale variability in the Asian Southwest monsoon.” (co-PI) (Duration: 2 year, September 2000 - August 2002) (Part of collaborative research project with Jonathan Overpeck and Julia Cole, University of Arizona, co-PIs; total award for LSU & UA: $223,451).

2000. National Science Foundation (NSF) doctoral dissertation improvement grant ($9,850), Geography and Regional Science Program, BCS-0002346. “Holocene history of Atlantic tropical forest and cerrado in southeastern Brazil.” (with Andre Tabanez, Ph.D. student) (12 months, July 2000 - June 2001).

2000. National Science Foundation (NSF), Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) Supplement grant ($4,690), funded by Geography and Regional Science Program, “Modern pollen-vegetation relationships in the Bolivian Altiplano: Key to deciphering the pollen record from ice cores.” (P.I.) (Duration: 1 year, July 1, 2000-June 30, 2001).

2000. Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR), Risk Prediction Initiative (RPI) research grant ($30,000), “Lake-sediment records of intense hurricane landfalls from Cumberland Island, Georgia.” (P.I.) (Duration: 12 months, October 1, 2000-September 30, 2001).

1999. National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant ($70,466), co-funded by Geography and Regional Science and Paleoclimate Programs, BCS-9906002. “Paleoenvironmental changes in the Bolivian Altiplano: A high-resolution pollen record from the Sajama Ice Cap.” (P.I.) (Duration: 2 years, September 1, 1999-August 31, 2001).

1999. National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant ($39,937), Earth System History Program, ATM-9905329. “Reconstructing a 1,000-year record of typhoon landfalls from Chinese historical documentary evidence.” (P.I.) (Duration: 16 months, October 1,1999-January 31, 2001).

1999. Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR), Risk Prediction Initiative (RPI) research grant ($70,000), “Reconstructing the hurricane landfall probabilities of the northern Atlantic coast: Lake sediment records from Cape Cod, Massachusetts.” (P.I.) (Duration: 12 months, July 1, 1999-June 30, 2000).

HONORS AND ACTIVITIES
2002-04. NSF Panel member, Geography & Regional Science Program.

2001-present. Editorial Board member, Journal of Geographical Sciences.

2000. Organizer and Chair, Symposia on “Frontiers in Hurricane Climate Research,” AAAS-2000 Annual Meeting, Washington D.C., February 17-22, 2000.

1999-2004. Invited speaker: 2003 PCS Catastrophe Conference (2003, Orlando); International Symposium for the East Asian Network for Environmental History and Climate Change, (2003, Kobe, Japan); “NOAA/NSF/PAGES Workshop: The Hadley Circulation: Present, past and future” (2002, Honolulu); “Brunel/INQUA/PAGES Conference: Environmental catastrophes and recovery in the Holocene” (2002, London); “Workshop: Historical climate reconstruction over East Asia” (2002, Beijing) “SCOR/JOI-sponsored symposium: Asian monsoons and global linkages on Milankovitch and sub-Milankovitch timescales” (2001, Beijing, China); “NSF Workshop: Atlantic basin paleohurricane reconstructions from high-resolution records” (2001, Columbia, SC); “NSF Workshop: Central Andean Paleoclimatology” (2001, Tucson); "NSF-ESH/NOAA-OGP Workshop: Reconstructing climate variability from historical sources and other proxy records" (1999, Manzanillo, Mexico); "Global Pollen Database Workshop" (1999, Boulder, NOAA).

1998-2002. Visiting Examiner, Geography academic programs, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

1997-2004. Organizer and Chair, Special sessions on "Hurricanes,” Association of American Geographers (AAG), Annual Meetings, Fort Worth (1997), Boston (1998), Honolulu (1999), New York City (2001), Los Angeles (2002), New Orleans (2003), Philadelphia (2004)-2 or 3 sessions every year.

1995-present. Co-director (elected), Chinese Pollen Database Working Group, Beijing.

1988-96. Member, U.S. National Committee for the International Union for Quaternary Research (USNC/INQUA) - appointed by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for two 4-year terms.

COURSES TAUGHT

Physical Geography: Land & Water Surfaces, Plant and Animal Realms
Biogeography
Quaternary Paleoecology
Tropical and Subtropical Biogeography
Advanced Physical Geography (Graduate Seminar)
Environmental Conservation
Introduction to Graduate Studies
Physical Geography

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Department of Geography & Anthropology
Louisiana State University
227 Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex
Baton Rouge, LA 70803-4105
Phone: (225) 578-5942
Fax: (225) 578-4420

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