Jian Liu is Professor and vice dean of the School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham, UK. His academic interests lie in the theories and implementations of optical microscopes, in particular the development of confocal microscopes, applied optics and optical metrology. He is also council member of China Optical Society for Engineering and China Instrument and Control Society, and also a member of ISO/TC213 and China SAC/TC240, both for geometrical products specifications, and a board member of Journal of Microscopy, Surface Topography: Metrology & Properties and Optics Communications.