Liu Baojun, born in 1931 in Tianjin, is a distinguished sedimentary geologist and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He studied in the Department of Geology at Tsinghua University from 1950 to 1952 and graduated from the graduate program of the Beijing Geological Institute in 1956. Liu currently holds the positions of Honorary Director of the Chengdu Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources under the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources of China, Honorary President of CDUT, Executive Director of the Geological Society of China, and President of the Sichuan Association for Science and Technology.
In his early career, Professor Liu Baojun focused on sediment transport mechanics, sedimentary structures, lithofacies paleogeography, and stratabound deposits, making significant contributions in areas such as the hydrodynamic interpretation of sedimentary structures, dynamic analysis of sedimentary facies, fluvial facies models, and the formation mechanisms of sandstone-hosted copper deposits. By integrating analyses of sedimentary diagenesis, lithofacies, and structural elements with physicochemical thermodynamics, he developed the innovative theory of "post-sedimentary differentiation and mineralization." Since the 1980s, Professor Liu has continued to achieve a series of breakthroughs in sedimentology, including his pioneering research on tempestites. He introduced the Cambrian phosphorite tempestite depositional model for the Yangtze Platform margin. He also led the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources of China’s key project, “Lithofacies Paleogeography, Sedimentation, and Stratabound Mineral Resource Prospects in Southern China,” which resulted in the creation of a set of medium-scale lithofacies paleogeographic maps. In this project, Professor Liu systematically integrated interdisciplinary approaches, encompassing structural lithofacies analysis, sedimentary evolution, basin analysis, and diagenesis and mineralization processes. His work stands as a groundbreaking example of large-scale, comprehensive research, rarely seen in both national and international contexts.
Professor Liu Baojun has been an active figure in the international academic community. Since 1987, he has served as a leading member of the International Union of Geological Sciences’ (IUGS) “GSGc” and as Chairman of the China Committee for Global Sedimentary Geology Program (GSGP), where he has organized and participated in numerous international research initiatives related to global sedimentary geology.
Over the past four decades, Professor Liu has published more than 100 papers in both domestic and international journals and has authored nearly 20 monographs. His representative works include Fundamentals and Methods of Lithofacies Paleogeography, Sedimentary Crust Evolution and Mineralization of the Ancient Southern China Continent, and the Atlas of Lithofacies Paleogeography in Southern China. He has received multiple Science and Technology Progress Awards from the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources of China. In 1989, he was honored with the “Li Siguang Geological Science Award,” the highest accolade in China’s geological community.
In 1996, at the 30th International Geological Congress, Professor Liu was awarded the Spandiarov Award, becoming only the 20th geologist worldwide to receive this prestigious honor in the past century and the first Chinese geologist to do so. In 1997, he was recognized as a National Outstanding Scientific and Technological Worker by the China Association for Science and Technology.
