Space geodesy · Lithospheric deformation

About me

I am a postdoctoral researcher at Department of Geophysics, Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University.

I am a geophysicist interested in how lithospheric processes and medium properties manifest as observable crustal deformation. My research integrates high-resolution spaceborne geodesy (primarily InSAR and GNSS) with seismological data to resolve the deformation continuum across diverse scales. I am interested in inverse problems that use optimization or stochastic sampling methods to infer the kinematics of faults, volcanoes, and plate rotations through analytical formulations and Boundary Element Modeling.

Research Interests: tectonic geodesy, InSAR, seismic cycles, plate tectonics, statistical seismology.

News

[08/2026] Will be attending the IEEE IGARSS meeting in Washington, DC.

[03/2026] Presented my recent work in Peru-Chile subduction zone at the SZ4D conference at Long Beach, CA.

[01/2026] I start my postdoc at Geophysics, Stanford, working with Prof. Howard Zebker to advance on open-access ground displacement products for volcano monitoring globally using Sentinel-1 and NISAR data. I am also working to Prof. Rosemary Knight to explore the capability of InSAR in our understanding of surface and subsurface hydrological processes.

[12/2025] I will be at the Subduction zone deformation session at AGU, New Orleans.

–

[10/2025] I have defended my Ph.D. dissertation from the Caltech Seismolab, under the mentorship of Profs. Mark Simons and Zach Ross. Check out my thesis.

Education

Ph.D., Geophysics, California Institute of Technology, 2019–2025
- Thesis: Space Geodetic Constraints on Plate Motion, Fault Creep, and Megathrust Coupling
- Advisor: Mark Simons, Zach Ross
Ph.D. Minor, Computational Science, California Institute of Technology, 2021–2025
M.S., Earth Science and Engineering, KAUST, Saudi Arabia, 2016–2018
- Thesis: Ground Deformation Related to Caldera Collapse and Ring-Fault Activity
- Advisor: Sigurjón Jónsson
B.S., Geology & B.Eng., Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University, 2010–2015

Experience

01/2026–present: Postdoc, Geophysics, Stanford University
08/2019–10/2025: Graduate researcher, Caltech Seismological Laboratory
08/2016–07/2018: Master researcher, Crustal deformation & InSAR group, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST, Saudi Arabia)
2015: Research assistant, Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Media

Editor’s highlight by EOS (AGU): Mapping the Whereabouts of Continents

Publications:

Liu, Y.-K., Yunjun, Z., & Simons, M. (2025). Inferring Tectonic Plate Rotations From InSAR Time Series. Geophysical Research Letters, 52(12), e2025GL115137. html, open html, PDF

Stephenson, O. L.^†, Liu, Y.-K.^†, Yunjun, Z., Simons, M., Rosen, P., & Xu, X. (2022). The Impact of Plate Motions on Long‐Wavelength InSAR‐Derived Velocity Fields. Geophysical Research Letters, 49(21), e2022GL099835. html, open html, PDF

Liu, Y.-K., Ross, Z. E., Cochran, E. S., & Lapusta, N. (2022). A unified perspective of seismicity and fault coupling along the San Andreas Fault. Science Advances, 8(8), eabk1167. html, PDF

Liu, Y.-K., Ruch, J., Vasyura-Bathke, H., & Jónsson, S. (2019). Influence of ring faulting in localizing surface deformation at subsiding calderas. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 526, 115784. html, PDF

Aldaajani, T., Simons, M., Yunjun, Z., Bekaert, D., Almalki, K. A., & Liu, Y.-K. (2022). Using InSAR Time Series to Monitor Surface Fractures and Fissures in the Al-Yutamah Valley, Western Arabia. Remote Sensing, 14(8), 1769. html

^† Equal contribution

Please feel free to reach out to me!

group_photo

Peak era of Simons’ group members in front of JPL, 2022. Left to right are me, Lijun Zhu, Leonid Pereiaslov, Yujie Zheng, Alex Berne, Tobias Köhne, Yunjun Zhang. Hmmm, where were Ollie, Rishav, and Théa?