Dr. Liao was awarded a PhD degree in physiology in July 1996. Dr. Liao studied electrophysiology and live imaging in the lab of Dr. Roberto Malinow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. From 1996 to 2000, Dr. Liao worked as a postdoctoral fellow, studying biochemistry and molecular biology in Dr. Richard Huganir’s lab at Johns Hopkins University. In November 2000, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota and in July 2007, promoted to Associate Professor. As an independent investigator, Dr. Liao’s research focuses on mechanistic studies of neurobiological disorders and diseases, such as drug addiction and neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Liao is interested in how these neurological diseases affect the structure and function of dendritic spines.