He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and served as Dean of the School of Pharmacy of Zhejiang University.

He later served as Director of Basic Medical Research at Xiyuan Hospital, and chief scientist at the CACMS.

His research on the scientific basis of the traditional Chinese medical concept of blood stasis won the National Science and Technology Progress Award, First Class.

[1] He also pioneered a new procedure to treat coronary artery disease using a combination of Chinese medicine and stem cells, which won the China Medical Society Science and Technology Award, First Class.

A postdoctoral researcher at the School of Pharmacy, He Haibo (贺海波), was found to have published 14 articles in international journals that used falsified or plagiarized data, and Li was listed as a co-author.