Mansi: Okay. So Lu, thank you for joining us today. And to just begin with, for our audience, can you share a little bit about your background, your journey in STEM field? Sure.
Dr. Lu Liu: So my name is Lu Liu. I am originally from China and I got my bachelor's and a master's degree from university of Oklahoma, both in environmental science.
And then I moved to Maryland, worked there for a couple years and decided to, went back to school and got my PhD in civil engineering. So I graduated with a PhD degree in civil engineering in 2017, and then moved to Texas, became a postdoc at Rice University. Worked there for like two and a half, two years and a half, and then found this faculty position at Iowa State University.
So I've been with the ISU since 2021, the fall of 2021. Okay.
Mansi: Okay. Thank you for sharing that. So it's been like quite like two years so far for you two or, yeah, plus years. Okay. Okay, great. So then once you got into this field, what was the motivation behind it? Why, why this particular field?
Dr. Lu Liu: Right.
So I'm always I've always been very interested in environmental problems because I'm originally from China. We have a lot of environmental issues there, like air pollution, water quality, deterioration. It just really bothers me while growing up. So I wanted to do something about it while in school.
So I, I I I, I did my bachelor's in environmental science with a and then pe master's in Environmental of Sciences. Well, but with a focus on water resources, because I'm particularly interested in water scarcity issues like droughts and also water extremes and et cetera. So that kind of got me into this field.
So I think it started from, originally from water environmental problems in my home country.
Mansi: Okay. It just reminded me recently I interviewed another faculty, Dr. Wong. I probably, you probably know her. Mm-hmm. She also talked about water justice. Mm-hmm. And I was like, okay, we, when you hear anything in stem and specific, specifically anything in engineering, you will not think More in the zone of, you know, water justice mm-hmm.
Or something related to, so needing in life, you know, water, food. Yeah. So thank you for sharing your motivation behind it. So were there any particular barriers or challenges you faced so far? Not on this campus, but overall throughout your journey in the field and how did you navigate that?
Dr. Lu Liu: Right. So the recent challenge I've been facing is, I guess so I've been with I S U for two years and I've been teaching for two years. And what I notice is that teaching to other graduate students and teaching to graduate students are very different. So the way the students perceive me are. I think very dependent on my identity.
So I think I have the worst three combinations being Asian and female and young. So that doesn't look good to our undergrads in engineering. So I, I am I. I can, I can feel that they treated me differently to other to my male colleagues who are older and senior and probably white, you know? So that's a challenge I've been facing and I, I still don't know how to resolve it though, but I think time will fix that problem.
Mansi: Yeah, I guess students should be more excited to have someone young to kind of be more relatable and like ask more questions. Yeah. I don't know. Like that is how I perceived the whole time I was studying because I was like, oh, if that is a young professor, There are certain issues which are faced by both of the generations, right?
Yeah. You would think
Dr. Lu Liu: so, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. But I guess engineering, especially like civil engineering is a very, very traditional type of study. So yeah, a lot of people came in with while growing up, but they were taught by, you know, white male and they, they haven't seen many faces like this, so, and they're kind of skeptical.
Mm.
Mansi: Yeah. But we we appreciate you coming here and talking to us about your experience. And we, I just hope that we see more faces and more young faces around the campus like yours and which just makes other people feel more better. Oh,
Dr. Lu Liu: I appreciate that. Yeah.
Mansi: So in terms of, you talked about the challenges you are facing right now, so.
Let me ask you what kind of, you think, what kind of unique perspective, because as you mentioned, you have three, I would say amazing combination. Mm-hmm. But what unique perspective that brings to the table in terms of in the field, in the academia overall. Yeah. Right.
Dr. Lu Liu: So I think the one thing that's kind of comforting.
Is a female student in our department. She's a graduate student. She's from South Korea, so also East Asia. And she told me that she's really glad that I'm here because she hasn't seen many people who look like her in the department, especially in the faculty line. Right? So she's really excited that I'm here and bring new knowledge and a new expertise to the table.
And she and I actually are hosting a. What we call water resources focus group meetings. Like a monthly meeting. It, it was her idea, but I executed it. So she wanted to have a cohort of water resources students a meeting, month to month and talk about water resources, topics and other things you know, challenges that's graduate students and also maybe like proposal writing skills and et cetera.
And so I helped her, you know build that out and she, she felt like she finally can find somebody who can. You know, like appreciate her ideas and act actually help her execute it. So her advisor who is amazing, but he's super busy. He, he kind of, he's higher up in the department, so he's has other obligations.
But you know, me being a junior faculty and also female, she feel like that that's somebody she can rely on and turn to for things like this. Absolutely. So I really feel being valued.
Mansi: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I have I mean, you are a professor. You did your entire you spent so many years working on your researches and then now you have your PhD and you're working as a faculty member.
I am just a graduate assistant, but I do teach undergraduates like, oh, One credit class. Because I'm an assistant, a graduate assistant, and one of the things, because I work in multicultural department, you just mentioned about how that relatable is very necessary, right? Yeah. Like a student needs to be relatable to their faculty and which makes a lot of difference.
I, I totally agree and I. Always, because I'm in College of business and I always look around to see and like find people who look like me, who I can be more open to just because I'm like, Hey, I need help here. Can you? Yeah. Can you guide me? You know, and mentorship is so important. So moving on our direction towards mentorship.
What is your view on mentorship? How you, if you want to share any story about mentorship in your life role of a mentor in your life, and kind of touch on networking, how important is networking in terms of graduate school and then beyond that?
Dr. Lu Liu: So are, so just to clarify, are you talking about how to mentor graduate
Mansi: students?
No. What was the role of mentorship in your life?
Dr. Lu Liu: Oh, what was the role of mentorship? Yes. Yeah, I had, so for me, I'm very fortunate. I have amazing mentors throughout my career. So starting from my bachelor's, I. I had this amazing advisor who convinced me to do undergraduate research. So that was very eye-opening for me because I had no idea like how to turn my knowledge into application.
And he kind of helped me see that perspective of the water resources. Field. And then that kind of led into my next stage, which is the master Master's degree, and I pursued my degree with him. So he's the one who kind of, you know, opened the doors for me. And then in my PhD and also my postdoc also had amazing advisors who were extremely supportive of my decisions.
So when I was doing my PhD, I didn't know if I wanna pursue academic career or industry career. And my advisor provided options, you know, opportunities for both options for me to explore. So, you know, he introduced me to these you know his contacts and see if there are any possible internship or collaboration opportunities for me.
So that was extremely. Helpful especially for somebody who came from another country who were not, who didn't have any connections here. Right. So so I, I think you know mentorship to me is one of the reasons why I ended up in I S U here today.
Mansi: Okay. That's good to know. Yeah. And the second part of the question was how, how networking plays role in your career.
And I think more about. How you pursued networking once you got into your graduate studies. Because I feel like once people are into research, there is not much time and not much effort put into the other side of the business of like networking and making connections. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Lu Liu: So I, I think I, I benefited from the networks of my supervisors while in school.
They were very well connected with the industry and academia. So I benefit quite a bit from those existing networks, but also branched out myself. While going on conferences, meetings, you know, and making connections myself. You know, I think being a graduate student has this advantage because you can just walk up to these people, introduce yourself and they wouldn't feel like offended.
'cause you're a graduate student, you don't, yeah. So I feel like, you know, this is but you gotta be bold. You gotta be brave and you gotta step out of your comfort zone. That's something that a lot of, I feel like a lot of East Asian womens. Have problems with no. You know, while growing up we were not, well, we were not used to, you know, walking up to strangers introduce ourselves.
But that, that's a culture that's here in the US and and I completely feel that. I feel that it is, it is it is necessary and it is, it is important for our careers especially being a women and engineer. You, you have to, you have to be comfortable around. People, you have to, you know, like especially your male colleagues, they you know, they come in with the advantage of being male and, and white and senior.
So but you know, being Asian and female and young, you, you have to put in more effort into networking. That's how I feel. Absolutely.
Mansi: Yeah. You, you just reminded me when you mentioned about like how East Asian women were not like, You know, you don't walk to a stranger. Yeah. I think as a South Asian, I never did that.
And when I go into networking event here, everyone just starts talking. Yeah. And I'm just in the corner thinking about how I'm supposed to approach, you know, like Right. How I'm supposed to like put myself out so much being like, Hey, you know, what are you doing? Kind of right. Right. So how did you overcome that?
How did you, were there like, anything you, any small steps you took towards Right. Becoming that outspoken person? Yeah,
Dr. Lu Liu: I, I don't know if I'm outspoken, but I'm definitely more outspoken than 10 years ago. You know, the first, I wanna say the first two or three years while being in the US I was pretty timid and you know, kind of.
Keep everything to myself. I was still being the typical East Asian female. But, but then I realized that, that this is not helping me. This is not helping my career or research. I'm not going anywhere with this. So I've, you know, looked around, looked at my other classmates. Who are also female, but maybe not Asian, but they are much more outspoken and they, they approach to people and introduce their research, introduce themselves, you know, especially at the conferences where you stand next to your poster.
People come around and they say, Hey, you're interested in my research. You want me to give you the gist of it? I just stand there, you know, and waiting for people to count me. But, This is much less interactive. Right. So I decided to just, you know, mimic the way they do it and that, and then, you know, and then you improve step by step and gradually become more outspoken.
Outspoken. So yeah, it, it takes training. Some training, I guess, and it's courage.
Mansi: Yeah. Yeah. No, definitely takes courage. I think it's just that one push you need to give yourself. And Yeah, then you'll be like, oh, this works. I can do this. Okay. Thank you so much for sharing that. So next let's move on to we, I, I know you spent like two years here so far.
But did you work outside of academia at all? Have you worked in industry? Do you work currently with your academia, with the industry? Tell me more about that.
Dr. Lu Liu: Yeah, that's a good question. I worked in industry very briefly when I after I got my master's degree, I worked in a, a very traditional oil and a gas company in Oklahoma City.
And I. But the pay was okay, but I didn't really enjoy the work because it is very routine. I go there clocking every day at eight 30 and clock out at four 30 every day. It's just kind of boring to me. And you do the same work over and over again. So I quit that job and then moved to Maryland later as I told you.
And then I also worked very briefly, maybe one year in a nonprofit organization. Hmm. So that was a very valuable experience to me because I. You know, in most NGOs they're not very wealthy, so you have to look for your own funding. So I developed. A lot of skills regarding to grantsmanship and, you know funding securement.
So I feel like that was a very, very valuable experience to a lot of people who had little training in grantsmanship or in school. Right. We didn't really get to write proposals ourselves. And But the, so, so this experience at N G O really helped me build that skill and also connected me to more industry people.
Hmm. So I felt like that was a very good experience and I wish that my student could have the same experience. Yeah.
Mansi: Absolutely. Yeah. I think when you talk talk about anyone graduating and looking for jobs, not many people want to go into NGOs, and that might be just me not knowing more, but like nonprofits are probably the last I.
Resort. Yes. The last resort. Mm-hmm. And I have known some of my friends who are in student affairs who really want to work for nonprofits. But then when you talk about engineering or STEM fields, I don't see a lot of my friends talking about working for nonprofits. Right. Yeah. Because everyone is eyeing for that, you know, the fancy job titles Yeah.
And the fancy companies. But that's good to know that a nonprofit organization work experience was so much beneficial for you. Yeah. And definitely, yeah, students should learn from that.
Dr. Lu Liu: Yeah. I, I, yeah. The, the, the pay is not that good at ngo. I'm sure you know that, but it's really the, the the training you can get at these NGOs because you, you're kind of independent.
You are on your own. You go out, talk to people, look for money and support. So yeah, it's like building your own company, but with very little support.
Mansi: Okay. Let's put it like that then. Yeah. Okay, so going back to your journey at i u so far and it's Yeah, let me put it like that. So how do you pursue, so far, what has changed in STEM field for Asian women specifically in terms of diversity and inclusion?
Where you started, when you started till today, have you seen changes? And if not, what would you like if, if there are some changes you would, like, if you had power to do some changes, right. What would that be? Okay.
Dr. Lu Liu: Let's see. So I've only been with I S U for two years. What I noticed is when we started.
We have about 30% of women faculty. Now it's still about 30%, but we did include a few more female faculty. Okay. So that was an improvement that I can see. And also the female students in our department is about 20%, and that has been static for many years. So I think that should be improved.
I don't know why the female students do not choose to come here, but it's been. 20% for many, many years as I heard. But I think increasing the number of female faculty in our department would probably help with the female students recruitment. Hmm. And another shocking thing that I recently learned is one of the, so.
Our oldest female faculty in our department was promoted to a full professor years ago, and she was the first female full professor in our department in 150 years. Oh, wow. So that was shocking to me. Our department has been existed for 150 years and she's the first female full professor, and she was only promoted a few years ago.
Okay. So I'm like, oh, okay. Things
Mansi: gotta change. Yep, yep. Things gotta change.
Dr. Lu Liu: Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, and, and I, I I don't know, I talked to some associate professors who are female. They are also eligible to be promoted to full professor, but. I feel like, you know, they sometimes feel like, oh, timing, it's not right.
Mm-hmm. Or they have other family obligations, you know, they have this and that. I feel like women worry a lot for their male colleague. They may just say, okay, I'm gonna submit the application and go, yeah. But for female, we tend to worry about a lot of things. What if I fail? And then, you know, so yeah.
So I think for, I don't know, maybe it will occur to me again when, when I go up for Professor, I don't know.
Mansi: Yeah, you should. And I'm in contact with you and I'm going to be like, Hey Lou, have you been the full professor? So thank you so far. You have shared so much about your journey and how things have progressed or not progressed.
But let's change gears towards we would, and I would especially like to hear what you're doing right now in your research area. What have you done? So. Maybe share a memorable accomplishment of yours or contribution? It can be more than one. I am sure you have more than one. Yeah.
Dr. Lu Liu: Okay. Well, let's see.
Yeah. One recent achievement is that I co wrote a news article with my colleague, my male colleague, and got it published on the I think it's called The Conversation. I wanna double check, but it's this online platform for public education about science, engineering and math stem basically. So I actually got the Invitation from our engineering communication office.
They're saying that, oh, these editors are looking for expert opinions about flooding in Florida. Would you be willing to provide pers some perspectives? And I said sure. And I co-wrote it with my with my colleague. And this news article got a lot of. Readers readerships. And it actually was read by somebody in Indiana who is organizing the Indiana Water Summit.
And they reached out to us and invited us to speak at their water summit in this upcoming August. So I did not expect that to happen at all. I was just thinking, oh, I'm just gonna provide some opinions, and that's it. But it actually led to something else that was. Even, you know, like that's something I would ne probably not do you know, like as an invited speaker at a water summit.
So that's something I have never thought about. So I guess I wanna say that I wanna say that you know, as a, as a junior faculty Especially Asian female. We wanna take the opportunities as much as we can, and also be courageous about it. And, you know, when they reached out to me, say, you wanna provide opinions, I actually worried about it.
I was thinking, oh, Am I qualified enough to comment on this? You know, I had worries like that. And my male colleague said that, oh, why not? You are a professor in water resources. You know, you, you are more than well qualified to comment on this flooding issue. So I thought, okay, let's do that. So, so, you know, I think for, for me, maybe for some other female as well, we, we tend to, Be skeptical skeptical of ourselves, maybe because of the way we were raising or growing up.
You know, people tell us that you can't do this, you can't do that. So that kind of, you know, had an influence on me. But now being the us you know we gotta be, you gotta have confidence in ourselves. And take the opportunities when opportunities come up. You never know what these opportunities can lead to.
So like, like this one, it leads to something amazing. Yeah.
Mansi: Yeah. First of all, congratulations. Yeah. Thank you for being invited for, as a speaker and for publishing your article. So congratulations. That sounds amazing to me. So thank you again for sharing that. In terms of just kind of wrapping up, mm-hmm.
Our interview, based on your experience, what would be that one advice for upcoming female, Asian female students coming into academia or STEM field overall? How can they make difference? What, it can be more than one advice. Oh,
Dr. Lu Liu: yeah. I guess I would so I have a female student from Iran in my group, and I always tell her that, you know, you, you gotta be confident and speak up.
So yeah, she is kind of like the young me, you know, she was pretty quiet and, you know, keep everything to herself. And she so I always tell her that, you know, at meetings, if you have different opinions, be ready to talk about it, you know, and Let other people hear your voices. 'cause if you don't speak up, nobody would know.
You have different opinions. So, and I think that that can be, you know, I, I would probably give this advice to other young Asian female students who are just like me who, you know, like quiet and timid. You know, like if you can, you know be more brave and outspoken, I think opportunities will come to you naturally.
Mansi: Yeah, well that was great advice and you just made my morning a lot of energy this morning, so I'm excited. Oh, thank you for my next interviews. But thank you so much again, Lou, for signing up for this. And as I mentioned, we'll do some, a little bit of I'll send you an email with more details and how you can access everything else.
But thank you so much for joining the interview today. Taking out your time, and I hope this was fun for you too. Yeah, totally. Take up some time for talking about yourself. I feel like we, as a woman, we don't talk much about us. Right? Exactly.
Dr. Lu Liu: Exactly. Well, I appreciate the work you do, man. This sounds very important.
Mansi: I wish I had more time and like I could dedicate more time, but this is a summer project, so turnaround is quick. But thank you so much for signing up. Really appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank.