Dr Zilong Liu is an Associate Professor and the 6G Lab Manager with the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex. His research lies in the interplay of coding, signal processing, and communications, with a major objective of bridging theory and practice. His recent research interests include 1) New waveforms for 6G and beyond; 2) Integration of communication, sensing, and localization; 3) AI and machine learning for enhanced communications and networking. He has widely published in top-rated journals such as IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, JSAC, JSTSP, and Proceedings of IEEE. So far, he has made a series of original contributions to sequences, waveforms, and multiple access.

He received his PhD (2014) from School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU, Singapore), advised by Prof Yong Liang Guan, Master Degree (2007) in the Department of Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University (China), advised by Prof Huazhong Yang (IEEE Fellow), and Bachelor Degree (2004) in the School of Electronics and Information Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST, China). He was also a Visiting PhD student to Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST, hosted by Prof Wai Ho Mow) and the University of Melbourne (hosted by Prof Udaya Parampalli).

From Jan. 2018 to Nov. 2019, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Communication Systems (ICS), Home of the 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC), University of Surrey, during which he studied the air-interface design of 5G communication networks. Prior to his career in UK, he spent nine and half years in NTU, first as a Research Associate (Jul. 2008 to Oct. 2014) and then a Research Fellow (Nov. 2014 to Dec. 2017). His PhD thesis “Perfect- and Quasi- Complementary Sequences”, focusing on fundamental limits, algebraic constructions, and applications of complementary sequences in wireless communications, has settled a few long-standing open problems in the field.

He is a Senior Member of IEEE and is/was an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems (April 2022 to July 2025), IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, IEEE Open Journal of the Communication Society, and Advances in Mathematics of Communications. He was the Hosting General Chair of the 12th Sequences and Their Applications (SETA’2024, https://seta-2024.github.io/) and the 10th IEEE International Workshop on Signal Design and its Applications in Communications (iwsda2022.github.io). He is/was a committee member of several flagship IEEE conferences (e.g., ISIT’2026, ICC’2026, PIMRC’2026, VTC-Fall’2025, IWSDA’2025, PIMRC’2023).

He was named the 2024 Outstanding Mid-Career Researcher in the Faculty of Science and Health, the University of Essex. He was a Red Bird Visiting Scholar in HKUST from December 2023 to January 2024. He was a Consultant to the Japanese government on 6G assisted autonomous driving in January 2023. He was also a recipient of the prestigious New Investigator Award in June 2023 from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK. He is a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Vehicular Technology Society. Details of his research can be found at: https://sites.google.com/site/zilongliu2357