Prof. Liang got his Ph.D degree from Boston University in 1993. He is a professor of the University of Maryland and Beijing Normal University. His main research interests focus on estimation of land surface variables from satellite observations, studies on surface energy balance, and assessing the climatic, ecological and hydrological impacts of afforestation in China.

Prof. Liang has published about 180 peer-reviewed journal papers and 21 book chapters. He authored the book "Quantitative Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces" (Wiley, 2004) that has been translated into Chinese, edited the book "Advances in Land Remote Sensing: System, Modeling, Inversion and Application" (Springer, 2008), and co-edited the book "Advanced Remote Sensing: Terrestrial Information Extraction and Applications" (Academic Press, 2012). He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transaction on Geoscience and Remote Sensing and also a guest editor of several remote sensing related journals.

Dr. Liang is an IEEE Fellow.