He obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale University under the supervision of Roger Evans Howe in 1987.
[1][2] Li was a Moore Instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.
[3] Li is Professor Emeritus at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology,[4] and has previously served as President of the Hong Kong Mathematical Society and as Chang Jiang Chair Professor of Zhejiang University.
Li is the founding director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics at Zhejiang University.
[5] Li was a recipient of a Sloan Research Fellowship in 1992 [6] and an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in 1994 (Section: Lie Groups).