Liu Jian received her Bachelor degree in Architecture and Master and Doctor degrees in Urban Planning & Design from Tsinghua University. She is a tenured full professor of Urban Planning & Design at the School of Architecture Tsinghua University and a Registered City Planner in China. She was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Graduate School of Design Harvard University in the USA 2016-2017, a visiting scholar at the l’Oservatoir d’Architecture de la Chine Contemporaine 20023-2004 and the l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville 2000-2001 in France and at the UBC Center for Human Settlements in Canada 1995-1996. She is now the Secretary of Asian Universities Alliance, Managing Chief-Editor of China City Planning Review, editorial board member of the Journal of Planning History, Urban Planning International, and Urban Design, Scientific Committee Member of International Forum of Urbanism, Vice Director of International Urban Planning Branch of the Urban Planning Society of China, Vice Director of Female Urban Planners Committee of China Association of City Planning, and Vice Director of Rural Planning Committee of China Rural Development Association. She served as Associate Dean of the School of Architecture Tsinghua University 2013-2024 and President of Asian Planning Schools Association 2017-2019. She has been working as professor, researcher and city planner and designer, with particular interests on town and rural planning, urban design, urban regeneration, planning institution, and international planning studies. she has either presided or participated in many research projects, including those sponsored by China Natural Sciences Foundation, such as Land Property Rights, Land Readjustment & Rural Planning, Evolution of Urban Planning System amid Transition Based on Comparisons among China, Japan and France, Rural & Urban Spatial Development in Greater Beijing Region, and Development & Construction of Built-up Environment Amid Rapid Urbanization in Economically Developed Regions; those commissioned by governments and governmental departments, such as Study on Legislation of Urban Planning in Foreign Countries commissioned by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Research on New Planning Technologies for Digital Cities sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology, Spatial Development Strategies of World Cities commissioned by Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning; and those in collaboration with international partners, such as the European Horizon 2020 Program on Transition towards urban sustainability through socially integrative cities in the EU and in China. She has been involved in the practical projects of urban planning and design of many Chinese cities, towns and villages including Beijing, Shaoxing, Changzhou, Nantong, Jining, Zhangjiagang, Qufu and so on and have been rewarded for many times with national, provincial or ministerial prizes. She has published several books either independently or in collaboration with others in either Chinese or English, including Tangshan: Urban Design for Post Industrial Transition (2023), Towards Socially Integrative Cities: Perspectives on Urban Sustainability in Europe and China (2021), Reforming The Urban Planning System: A Research Based on the Comparison of China, Japan and France amid Transition (2021), Urban Space in Cultural Perspective (2021), and Suburban Development Based on Regional Integration: Inspirations of the regional practice of Paris to Beijing (2004), etc.. Her papers are also frequently seen in manuscripts and journals, both at home and abroad, in the languages of Chinese, English, French, Japanese and Korean. She has been invited to speak on the congress of ISOCARP, ACSP, AAAS, APSA, IACP and UPSC and give lectures at colleges and universities all over the world.
