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C. Karen Liu

Physics-Based Animation Character Animation Optimal Control Reinforcement Learning Computational Biomechanics
Stanford University Computer Science

About

C. Karen Liu is a professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University. Prior to joining Stanford, Liu was a faculty member at the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. She received her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Washington. Liu's research interests are in computer graphics and robotics, including physics-based animation, character animation, optimal control, reinforcement learning, and computational biomechanics. She developed computational approaches to modeling realistic and natural human movements, learning complex control policies for humanoids and assistive robots, and advancing fundamental numerical simulation and optimal control algorithms. The algorithms and software developed in her lab have fostered interdisciplinary collaboration with researchers in robotics, computer graphics, mechanical engineering, biomechanics, neuroscience, and biology. Liu received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and was named Young Innovators Under 35 by Technology Review. In 2012, Liu received the ACM SIGGRAPH Significant New Researcher Award for her contribution in the field of computer graphics.

Research Performance Summary

168
Total Papers
11932
Total Citations
61
H-Index
2002-2026
Active Research Span

First Recorded Paper

Synthesis of complex dynamic character motion from simple animations

Year: 2002

Citations: 358

Venue: ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 21 (3)

Latest Recorded Paper

Flow Policy Gradients for Robot Control

Year: 2026

Citations: 0

Venue: arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.02481

Last 10 Years Publication Activity

This timeline shows the professor's yearly publication activity.

2026
3
2025
14
2024
15
2023
21
2022
16
2021
13
2020
8
2019
8
2018
7
2017
11
2016
8

Publication Venues and Collaboration

Journal, Conference, and Book Publication Breakdown

Conference 67
Journal 31
Book 0

Top Coauthors

Liu Turk Tan

Research Impact by Period

2025-2026

Period Stats
Papers 17
Citations 421
Avg. Citations / Paper 24.8
H-Index 9

2020-2024

Period Stats
Papers 73
Citations 4865
Avg. Citations / Paper 66.6
H-Index 33

2015-2019

Period Stats
Papers 38
Citations 2863
Avg. Citations / Paper 75.3
H-Index 26

2010-2014

Period Stats
Papers 28
Citations 1683
Avg. Citations / Paper 60.1
H-Index 20

2005-2009

Period Stats
Papers 10
Citations 1611
Avg. Citations / Paper 161.1
H-Index 10

2000-2004

Period Stats
Papers 2
Citations 489
Avg. Citations / Paper 244.5
H-Index 2

Contact and Professional Links

Contact Information

ckliu38@stanford.edu

Detected Research Keywords

Robot Assisted Dressing Human Motion Reconstruction Estimating Mass Distribution Mass Distribution Articulated Distribution Articulated Objects Model Predictive Control Human Object Interaction Dart Dynamic Animation Dynamic Animation Robotics Animation Robotics Toolkit