Li began his career as an assistant engineer at the Wuhan Material Protection Research Institute in China (1982–1986). After completing his Ph.D., he was a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University from 1997 to 2000.[2]
In 2000, Li joined the University of California, Berkeley, as an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and to full professor in 2010.[1]
Research
Li has developed methods for 3D printing of amorphous and polymeric materials and conducted extensive studies in atomistic and multiscale simulations. He has worked on piezoelectric material fracture, phase-field modeling of fracture, and peridynamics.[5][3]
In solid and fluid mechanics, Li has contributed to computational fracture mechanics, non-local computational fluid dynamics, and dislocation pattern dynamics. He has applied AI and machine learning to forensic structural analysis and design optimization. His research area includes micromechanics, composite materials homogenization, nanomechanics, and soft matter physics, including biomaterials and metamaterials.[2][6]
Editorial service
Li has served as Editor-in-Chief of CMES: Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences since 2018 and of the Journal of Micromechanics and Molecular Physics since 2016.[7] In 2025, he joined the editorial board of the International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering. He has served as Associate Editor for Scientific Reports since 2023 and for Engineering Failure Analysis from 2024 to 2025, and as Editor for Acta Mechanica since 2021.[8]
Honors and awards
Member, National Academy of Artificial Intelligence (NAAI), 2025[9]
Fellow, Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA), 2024[9]
Distinguished Fellow, International Engineering and Technology Institute (IETI), 2022[9]
Fellow, International Association of Computational Mechanics (IACM), 2017
Fellow, United States Association of Computational Mechanics (USACM), 2013
A. Richard Newton Research Breakthrough Award, 2008
Selected publications
Li, S. and P. A. Mataga (1996). "Dynamic crack propagation in piezoelectric materials Part I: Electrode solution." Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 44, 1799–1830.
Li, S. and W. K. Liu (1999). "Reproducing kernel hierarchical partition of unity Part I: Formulations." International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 45, 251–288.
Li, S., Liu, W.-K., Rosakis, A., Belytschko, T., and W. Hao (2002). "Meshfree Galerkin simulations of dynamic shear band propagation and failure mode transition." International Journal of Solids and Structures, 39, 1213–1240.
Li, S., Sauer, R. A., & Wang, G. (2007). "The Eshelby tensors in a finite spherical domain: I. Theoretical formulations." ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics, 74, 770–783.
Li, S. and S. Urata (2016). "An atomistic-to-continuum molecular dynamics: Theory, algorithm, and applications." Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 306, 452–478.
Li, S. and H. Fan (2015). "On multiscale moving contact line theory." Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 471, 20150224.
Lyu, D. and Li, S. (2017). "Multiscale crystal defect dynamics: A coarse-grained lattice defect model based on crystal microstructure." Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 107, 379–410.
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