Rate My Professor Ronghui Liu

Professor Ronghui Liu is Professor of Networks and Transport Operations at the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS), University of Leeds, where she has been a faculty member since 1994. She also serves as Director of International Activities at ITS. Liu earned her PhD in Radio Astronomy from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, in 1991, and a First Class BSc in Astrophysics from the Department of Astronomy, Peking University, in 1987. Her early career included a position as Research Fellow at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London (1991-1993), and a part-time role as Head of Transport Modelling at TRL Ltd in 2005.

Her research interests encompass a wide range of themes in transport studies, including vehicle dynamics and traffic microsimulation model developments such as DRACULA and TracULA; traffic control theory and algorithms; travel behaviour and Intelligent mobility; stochastic models and reliability analysis; public transport operations and controls; timetabling and schedule coordination; and train control and railway traffic management systems. She focuses on the interrelationships between these areas and methodologies for estimating, designing, and evaluating their network-wide effects. Expertise includes network modelling, simulation, and optimisation; digital train control; ERTMS; signal optimisation and route choice; and public transport reliability. As Principal Investigator, she has led major projects including OptiYard under EU Shift2Rail (2017-2019, €1,499,900), Energy-Efficient Automatic Train Operation funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering (2017-2019, £99,363), and DITTO funded by RSSB (2014-2017, £905,000). Notable publications include Fundamentals of Traffic Simulation (2010), Modelling Instantaneous Traffic Emission and the Influence of Traffic Speed Limits (2006), A Platoon Based Cooperative Eco-Driving Model for Mixed Automated and Human-Driven Vehicles at a Signalised Intersection (2018), and A Literature Review of Artificial Intelligence Applications in Railway Systems (2022). Liu has contributed editorially as Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (2009-2016) and IET Journal of Intelligent Transport Systems (2017-present), and served on programme and organising committees for IEEE ITSC conferences, as well as expert evaluator roles for EU Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking.