Junkan Li is an environmental economist who studies how climate risks and natural disasters affect households, markets, and regional economies. His research focuses on climate adaptation, natural hazard mitigation, disaster insurance, migration, and economic resilience. He combines applied econometrics, spatial analysis, and computational general equilibrium modeling to examine how economic agents and regional systems respond to climate-related risks and shocks.

He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from The Ohio State University in 2022. He subsequently served as a Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University, where he contributed to the NSF-funded  Coastal Hazards, Equity, Economic Prosperity & Resilience (CHEER) project. His research examined the economic impacts of hurricanes and strategies for strengthening economic resilience in North Carolina, US. From 2025 to 2026, he served as a Research Assistant Professor at the Agricultural Risk Policy Center at North Dakota State University, where he studied climate-related agricultural risks and risk-mitigation tools, including crop insurance and agricultural support programs.

He is currently a Visiting Scientist at Cornell University, where he works as part of an interdisciplinary team of economists, scientists, engineers, and other social scientists. His work integrates economic analysis with insights from multiple disciplines to evaluate strategies for managing natural-hazard risks and strengthening community resilience. He welcomes inquiries from researchers and practitioners interested in potential collaboration.