Professor Yansui Liu is a distinguished scholar specializing in human-economic geography and land science. He is a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and a Fellow of the Geographical Society of China (GSC), and currently serves as Vice President of Henan University and Director of the Faculty of Geographical Science and Engineering. His major research areas encompass urban-rural transformation and urbanization, poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, human-earth system science, and geographical engineering.

Integrating theory, technological methodology, and practical application, Professor Liu leads his research team into grassroots villages and diverse land-use settings across typical regions for in-depth field surveys. Through this approach, he has developed a systematic scientific understanding of urban-rural developmental challenges and formulated the innovative ‌Geo-STEP‌ (Geographical Science–Technology–Engineering–Practice) paradigm. These scholarly insights have been widely applied to guide regional development, inform policy formulation, and support national decision-making on a global scale.

Professor Liu has spearheaded the establishment of five national comprehensive geographical engineering research and demonstration bases, advancing land engineering technology demonstration and high-quality development practice. In 2016, he initiated the founding of the International Geographical Union's Commission on Agricultural Geography and Land Engineering (IGU-AGLE) and served as its inaugural chair. In 2020, he launched the Alliance for Poverty Reduction and Development (ANSO-APRD) under the Belt and Road Initiative and served as its first chairman, thereby leading the internationalization of research on agricultural geography, land engineering, targeted poverty alleviation, and rural revitalization. As Principal Investigator, Professor Liu has undertaken over 70 research projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), NSSFC, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Ministry of Natural Resources (MLR), the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the European Research Council, among others.

Professor Liu has received more than 20 technology and scholarly awards, including: The Third National Innovation Pacesetter Award, China Association for Science and Technology (2023); the IGU Distinguished Geographical Practice Award, International Geographical Union (2022); Fellowship of the Geographical Society of China (2022); the China New Development Award, Springer Nature (2022); the National Advanced Collective for Poverty Alleviation, awarded by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council (2021); the TWAS Prize in Social Sciences (2017); and the Second Prize of the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award, State Council (2019).

Professor Liu has published over 600 scientific papers, of which more than 290 have appeared in leading SCI/SSCI journals, including Nature, Science, Nature Cities, Land Use Policy, and Applied Geography. He has also authored 20 monographs and contributed 36 commentaries and policy analyses to major national newspapers. He has been recognized as a Top 1% Scientist by Thomson Reuters, a Global Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics since 2018, and one of the World's Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University since 2019.