The award -winning scientist left his whole chair at Rice University in Houston, Texas – where he has worked since 2002 – in November, according to the USTC website.
Niu is the third person to receive the Distinguished Chairs Defacthip in USTC, one of the best Chinese universities, located in the Southeast province in Anhui.
He is well known for his research on the deep structures of the earth. Niu has developed imaging techniques to map the Seismic diversity From the interior of the earth to different depths and scales to better understand the chemical and physical processes within our planet.
Born in Jiangsu province in eastern China in 1966, Niu graduated from the USTC in 1988 and obtained a doctorate University of Tokyo In 1997. In 2002, he joined Rice University as an assistant teacher.
In 2008, Niu published research in the journal Nature which analyzed 10 years of data from part of the fault of San Andreas in California which showed that subtle seismic changes that preceded earthquakes could be measured. The article, entitled “A new step forward in the prediction of earthquakes”, was largely reported internationally.
