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September 30th, 2026
At Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies, Dongfang Liu is helping build a new model for applied AI, bringing together advanced AI expertise, library and information science, research data, and disciplinary knowledge from across the university. Working with researchers, librarians, archivists, and information professionals across colleges and disciplines, he will explore how AI can support research, discovery, and learning while advancing responsible and effective uses of emerging technologies.
Dongfang joins Purdue sharing the vision for Libraries as a hub for AI learning, research, and innovation. His work will create new opportunities to connect Purdue Libraries’ strengths in information studies, research data management, archives and special collections, and research discovery with advances in artificial intelligence.
“AI is hungry for data, and libraries are where the knowledge of humanity lives,” Dongfang said. “For centuries, libraries have collected, curated, and safeguarded the record of what we know. Today, that record has become the most valuable resource of the AI era.”
Purdue Libraries has long played a central role in supporting research and scholarship through expertise in data stewardship, information discovery, archival collections, and knowledge organization. Dongfang’s work builds on these established strengths by exploring how artificial intelligence can enhance research data management, improve access to archival and cultural heritage materials, and support evidence synthesis and scholarly discovery. Through collaborations with faculty and staff across the Libraries and campus, he hopes to identify responsible and impactful applications of AI that advance research across disciplines.
Choosing Purdue
Dongfang’s interest in Purdue grew from the opportunity to work at the intersection of AI, information studies, research data, and interdisciplinary research at a major research university.
“I was fortunate to hold offers from several R1 universities across the United States and from globally ranked universities in Asia,” Dongfang said. “I chose Purdue because it offered what no one else could, the chance to lead an AI initiative from the very heart of a great university.”
At Purdue Libraries, Dongfang plans to work with the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR) team, a group of data management and data curation experts led by Dr. Reid Boehm who support researchers in sharing, publishing, and preserving research data. Dongfang will collaborate with the team to advance the management of research data and AI models while exploring new applications of AI with researchers across disciplines.
His research interests encompass three key areas where Purdue Libraries has established strengths and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.
First, he sees opportunities to apply AI to research data management, helping researchers organize, curate, preserve, and responsibly use data throughout the research lifecycle.
Second, he is interested in exploring how AI can improve access to and engagement with archival and special collections materials, creating new ways to discover and analyze unique historical and cultural resources.
Third, he sees significant potential for AI to support evidence synthesis and research discovery, including systematic reviews and large-scale analyses of scholarly literature that help researchers navigate increasingly complex bodies of information.
The interdisciplinary nature of Purdue was a major attraction.
Purdue’s culture of collaboration and its breadth of disciplinary expertise create opportunities to explore how AI can be applied in different research contexts. Engineers, agricultural scientists, life scientists, humanists, and researchers in other disciplines generate unique data and confront different research challenges. Dongfang sees Purdue Libraries as a place where researchers can connect with the expertise, collections, data resources, and technological tools needed to explore new applications of AI.
From AI research to real-world problems
Dongfang’s approach is grounded in experience applying AI beyond the laboratory. His work with the Laboratory for Laser Energetics in Rochester, New York, a U.S. Department of Energy-supported national laser facility and major center for fusion energy research, has involved using AI to address challenges related to the development of clean energy.
“We apply AI to real challenges on the path toward clean and abundant energy, and the tools we built are in use there today,” Dongfang said.
Seeing research move into real-world applications changed how he thinks about impact.
“Watching research leave my lab and go to work on one of the hardest problems of our time changed how I measure success,” he said. “I no longer count only papers. I count problems solved.”
That perspective will inform his work at Purdue, where he hopes to help researchers in different disciplines move AI from an emerging technology into a practical research tool.
Shaping the future of AI learning and research
As AI becomes increasingly important to research and education, Dongfang sees Purdue Libraries playing a central role in helping the university prepare for what comes next.
“We will make Purdue’s data AI-ready, connect it with the models and the people who can learn from it, and let researchers in any field move faster and see further than they ever could alone,” he said.
For students, that vision creates opportunities to learn not only how to use AI, but how AI can be applied within their own disciplines. For researchers, it means making high-quality data more accessible and useful for new forms of analysis and collaboration. It also opens possibilities for new approaches to discovery within archival collections and for more efficient evidence synthesis across large bodies of scholarly literature.
By combining AI expertise with the Libraries’ established strengths in data stewardship, archives and special collections, and research support, Dongfang hopes to create new opportunities for collaboration across disciplines and advance Purdue’s leadership in both information science and artificial intelligence.
“When that happens, Purdue Libraries will stand as a national model for what a library can be in the age of AI,” Dongfang said.
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