Sophia B Liu
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Innovation Specialist
Reston, VA
Dr. Sophia B Liu is an Innovation Specialist - Social Scientist leading participatory open science research in the
Science and Decisions Center at USGS in Reston, VA. Since 2016, she has been serving as Co-Chair of the
Federal Crowdsourcing & Citizen Science (CCS) Community of Practice and
USGS Agency Coordinator. She also collaborates with FGDC in co-leading the
GeoPathways Initiative. In 2021, Dr. Liu was on detail to the HHS as the Director of Open Innovation for the
InnovationX team to support the
COVID-19 TOPx Tech Sprint. In 2017-2019, she helped initiate the
FEMA Crowdsourcing Unit and gave a
FEMA PrepTalk. In 2011-2015, she was a Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow working on
USGS Tweet Earthquake Dispatch in CO,
iCoast - Did the Coast Change? in FL, and Critical Minerals GeoHackJam in VA. Dr. Liu received her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Technology, Media, and Society interdisciplinary program (
dissertation) and a B.A. at University of California, Irvine in Social Science with a minor in Information & Computer Science and in Digital Arts.