PeopleofSuperintelligence

Lab leader

Dayiheng Liu

Also known as Liu Dayiheng

Dayiheng Liu is an AI researcher at Alibaba who works on the Qwen family of large language models. He studied computer science at Sichuan University, where he received his doctorate in 2020. In 2020 Huawei chose him for its Genius Youth Plan, and in January 2021 he joined Alibaba's Damo Academy. He co-authored the Qwen3 Technical Report in 2025 and Gated Attention for Large Language Models, which NeurIPS honored as a Best Paper. He is head of Alibaba's Qwen large language model project, a role he took on in September 2026.

Now at
Alibaba
Works
179

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.

Timeline

  1. 2012–2020

    A doctorate at Sichuan University

    He is admitted to the School of Computer Science at Sichuan University in 2012 and obtains his doctorate in 2020.

  2. 2020

    A Huawei talent program

    In 2020 he becomes the only selected candidate in Southwest China for the first tier of Huawei's Genius Youth Plan.

  3. January 2021

    Joining Alibaba's Damo Academy

    He joins Alibaba's Damo Academy in January 2021.

  4. May 2025

    A Qwen3 technical report

    He co-authors the Qwen3 Technical Report, which appears on arXiv in May 2025.

  5. 2025

    A NeurIPS best paper

    In 2025 he co-authors Gated Attention for Large Language Models, which NeurIPS names a Best Paper.

  6. March 2026

    Pre-training Qwen models

    He takes charge of Qwen pre-training in March 2026 and also manages the post-training and coding teams.

  7. September 2026

    Head of the Qwen project

    In September 2026 he becomes head of Alibaba's Qwen large language model project.

Sources and credits

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  1. Post-90s Generation Leads China's Large Model Industry: Yao Shunyu, Luo Fuli, Liu Dayiheng, Chen Yusen, Zhou Chang and Their Peers Take Center Stage in Domestic AI Sector eu.36kr.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  2. [2505.09388] Qwen3 Technical Report arxiv.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  3. [2505.06708] Gated Attention for Large Language Models: Non-linearity, Sparsity, and Attention-Sink-Free arxiv.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  4. NeurIPS 2025 Awards neurips.cc. Checked 15 October 2026.
  5. Alibaba Appoints Liu Dayiheng to Lead Qwen letsdatascience.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  6. Alibaba Appoints New Leader for Qwen Team: Liu Dayi Heng Takes Charge of Tongyi Qianwen Large Model, Makes Appearance Before Yunqi Conference news.aibase.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  7. Alibaba Appoints Liu Dayi Heng as Head of the Qwen Project news.aibase.com. Checked 15 October 2026.