Joseph Liao is the Kathryn Simmons Stamey Professor and Vice Chair of Urology at Stanford University School of Medicine.  He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and medical degree from Stanford University. He completed his urology residency and clinical fellowship (endourology) training at UCLA Medical Center.  Dr. Liao is a board-certified urologist and maintains an active clinical practice focusing on patients with urologic cancer and kidney stone disease.

As a physician-scientist, he leads a translational research laboratory that focuses on development of cancer imaging technologies and molecular diagnostics for urological cancer and infections. With funding support from the National Institutes of Health and Department of Veterans Affairs, his group has made key contributions in 1) development of enhanced endoscopic imaging technologies for bladder cancer; 2) identification and validation of biomarkers for bladder cancer detection, surveillance, and treatment response assessment; and 3) development of rapid molecular diagnostics for urinary tract infections.  Dr. Liao is committed to the training of physician-scientsits and serves as the program director of a K12 Urologic Research (KURe) training program at Stanford.