Name = "Dr. Mark H. Liu"
titles = ["Associate Professor of Finance",
	 "Director of MS Finance Program"]
Contact_Info = {"Phone":"1-859-2579842", 
	 "Email":"mark.liu@uky.edu"}
books = (Learn Generative AI with PyTorch (Manning 2024),
         Machine Learning, Animated (CRC Press 2023),
         Make Python Talk (No Starch Press 2021))

EDUCATION

Ph.D. in Finance, Boston College

M.S. in Economics, University of Western Ontario

B.S. in International Economics, Wuhan University

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

(Founding) Director, MS Finance Program, University of Kentucky, 2016-present

Associate Professor of Finance (with tenure), University of Kentucky, 2011-present

Visiting Scholar, Boston College, Fall 2011

Assistant Professor of Finance, University of Kentucky, 2004-2011

BOOKS

"LEARN GENERATIVE AI WITH PYTORCH"

Generative AI is all the rage now, learn to do it yourself! My book Learn Generative AI with PyTorch is now available in Manning Early Access Program (MEAP)! Start with simple content (images/shapes) and grow to complicated tasks (converting horses to zebras) before advancing to challenging stuff (build ChatGPT-style Transformers to generate text; generate lifelike music). You'll learn to use PyTorch to create various generative models from scratch.

The Python code for my book LEARN GENERATIVE AI WITH PYTORCH is available on Github here.

"MACHINE LEARNING, ANIMATED"

ChatGPT has kicked off an arms race in ML and AI. Everyone in every profession must adapt or face the risk of becoming obsolete. My book eases you into basic ML concepts and summarizes the learning process in three words: initialize, adjust and repeat. This is illustrated step by step with animation to show how machines learn: from initial parameter values to adjusting each step, to the final converged parameters and predictions. You'll learn how to build deep learning game strategies and combine this with reinforcement learning, witnessing AI achieve super-human performance in Atari games such as Breakout, Space Invaders, Seaquest, Pong, and Beam Rider. The book is published by CRC Press.

The code for my book Machine Learning, Animated is available on Github here or an earlier version of the free online book here.

A preview of the preface, table of contents, and Chapter 1 here.

"MAKE PYTHON TALK"

Finance students with coding skills are in high demand on the job market. Python is widely used in the finance industry. Because of this, the MSF program has incorporated Python in its curriculum. I have written a Python programming book that's been published by No Starch Press (a well-known publisher of Python and other open-source books such as Automate the Boring Stuff and Python Crash Course).

You can order my book MAKE PYTHON TALK on Amazon here or on Barnes & Noble here.

The code for my book MAKE PYTHON TALK is available on Github here or you can directly download in a zip file here.

The book is on how to use speech recognition and text to speech to build fun applications.

For example, you can build your own Amazon Alexa using Python. You can keep the program running 24/7. Whenever you need help, wake it up by saying "Hello Python," and tell the program what you want to do.

SELECTED RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

Dividends vs Stock Repurchase and Long-Run Stock Returns Under Heterogeneous Beliefs, Review of Corporate Finance Studies 2021, p578-632, with Onur Bayar, UT San Antonio, and Tom Chemmanur, Boston College)

A Theory of Equity Carve-Outs and Negative Stub Values under Heterogeneous Beliefs, the Journal of Financial Economics 100, 616-638, with Onur Bayar, UT San Antonio, and Thomas Chemmanur, Boston College

Analysts Incentives to Produce Industry-Level versus Firm-Specific Information, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 46, 757-784. (single-authored)

For the list of all publications, click here