Junkan Li earned his Ph.D. in Economics from The Ohio State University in 2022, specializing in macroeconomics and computational economics. He subsequently served as a Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University, where he joined the NSF-funded Coastal Hazards, Equity, Economic Prosperity & Resilience (CHEER) project and conducted interdisciplinary research on the economic impacts of environmental hazards. During his time at Cornell, he also pursued research in risk management, disaster insurance, and policy analysis. His work focused on evaluating the effectiveness of insurance mechanisms and public policies in mitigating the socio-economic consequences of natural disasters, with an emphasis on translating interdisciplinary insights into actionable strategies for resilience and recovery. 

In August 2025, he will join the Agricultural Risk Policy Center at North Dakota State University as a Research Assistant Professor.