His innovative work at AT&T pioneered the research and application of lightwave communication, and has had a far-reaching impact on information technology for over four decades.

His father was a senior officer of the Chinese Foreign Ministry (before 1949, the Republic of China) and served as an ambassador to several countries.

During his tenure at AT&T, he wrote and contributed to many journal papers, patents, and books in the areas of antennas, microwave propagation, lasers and optical communications.

From the late 1960s, Li engaged in pioneering research on lightwave technologies and systems, which are now ubiquitously deployed in the telecommunications industry.

With the understanding that a technique can only be put into real use if it remains backward compatible with existing technology, he and his team proposed and studied the use of optical amplifiers in WDM systems, which utilized the existing embedded base to create virtual fibers by putting more channels onto a single fiber.

The use of optical amplifiers changed the paradigm of network economics and is considered to be of revolutionary significance (though evolutionary in design) in the history of lightwave communications.

He has introduced many world-class experts to lecture in China, bringing to the country the state-of-art technology in optical communication.

This methodology was reflected in his introduction of optical amplifiers in WDM which offered network providers a graceful upgrade.

He was also a co-founder, member of the Board of Directors, and active contributor with Insight Photonic Solutions, Inc. - Tingye Li at OFC '02, adapted from "Ode to the West Wind", by Percy Bysshe Shelley