Juan Liu

Juan Liu is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, affiliated with the Department of Integrative Biology. Her research focuses on evolutionary biology, vertebrate paleontology, and functional morphology, particularly in fish biology and the auditory systems of vertebrates. She leads a lab conducting fieldwork for vertebrate fossils and employs CT scanning, geometric morphometrics, and finite element analysis to study fish anatomy and sound transmission mechanisms.

Research interests include the phylogeny of fossil fish, functional anatomy of vertebrates, and pathological changes in fish auditory systems using zebrafish models. Her work bridges descriptive anatomy, biomechanics, and evolutionary mechanisms, aiming to understand both proximate (physiological/biomechanical) and ultimate (evolutionary) factors in vertebrate auditory systems.

Recent studies highlight CT-based 3D modeling of zebrafish hearing systems and taxonomic revisions of Eocene/Oligocene fish fossils. Field projects have explored the Beibu Gulf’s Paleogene ichthyofauna and Oligocene-Miocene lakes in the India-Asia collision zone. Her lab’s webpage (https://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/liu/) provides further details on ongoing projects and collaborations.