Li Li, associate professor of petroleum and natural gas engineering, is among 89 of the nation’s brightest young engineers selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) 21st annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering (USFOE) symposium.
The 2015 USFOE symposium will be held Sept. 9-11 at NAEs’ Beckman Center in Irvine, California. The symposium brings together a select group of the nation’s outstanding young engineers ages 30-45 from industry, academia, and government to discuss pioneering technical work and leading-edge research in various engineering fields and industry sectors. Participants are nominated by fellow engineers or organizations and are invited following a competitive selection process.
“The USFOE symposium brings together some of our nation’s brightest young engineering talents and gives them the opportunity to develop professional relationships that become critical their advancing our nation’s well-being throughout their careers,” said NAE President C. D. Mote Jr.
“It is an honor to be selected to attend this symposium. As an earth resources engineer, I look forward to this opportunity to learn from and network with engineers from other fields; to think about ideas across disciplinary boundaries for high societal impacts,” said Li.
Li’s research bridges biogeochemical sciences with environmental engineering and petroleum and natural gas engineering, and has advanced research frontiers at the nexus of water, energy and environment. Her specific research interests include watershed hydrogeochemistry, contaminant reactive transport and fate across scales, sustainable energy production, and water quality and quantity.
Li joined the faculty of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering in 2009. Prior to coming to Penn State, she was a research scientist and geological postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Li received her bachelor's and master’s degrees, both in in environmental chemistry, from Nanjing University in China, She earned her doctorate in environmental engineering and water resources from Princeton University.