Profile: As a Hertz Fellow, an NSF Fellow, and a Scripps Dean's Fellow, Chang Liu is pursuing a Ph.D. in the Schultz group at The Scripps Research Institute. There, he has evolved organisms with an expanded genetic code that allows the in vivo incorporation of more than the natural 20 amino acids into proteins. He has also developed a robust system for evolution with these artificially expanded genetic codes where enhanced function is conferred by chemically synthesized amino acids beyond the 20 encoded by nature.

Chang received his B.A. in Chemistry from Harvard University in 2005, graduating summa cum laude. He was a Harvard College Teaching Fellow, a founding member of Harvard's Undergraduate Chemistry Club, a Pfizer Synthetic Organic Chemistry Research Fellow, and an elected member of Phi Beta Kappa. His undergraduate research, for which he was awarded the Blumberg Creative Science Award, was conducted in the laboratory group of Prof. Stuart Schreiber where he developed chemical methods for the efficient parallel synthesis of numerous structurally diverse molecules.

In addition to his involvement in the sciences, Chang is an accomplished musician and musical scholar whose principle teachers have included preeminent concert pianists Robert Levin, Nicholas Zumbro, and Ozan Marsh. Chang has given solo recitals and has appeared with numerous orchestras nationwide since he was ten years of age and continues to be an active performer.

Chang is a published author in chemistry, biology, and music theory and is a United States Presidential Scholar. He was born in Shanghai, China and spends his time away from Scripps in Tucson, Arizona with his family.