Li Research Group

(est. July 2020)

Welcome to the Li Research Group at UCLA! We broadly pursue innovations in energy and environmental technologies. This goal requires designing unique materials that satisfy extraordinary demands. To make significant breakthroughs in these areas, advanced electron microscopy techniques (e.g. cryo-EM) will be developed to establish fundamental guiding principles for the design and synthesis of next-generation materials. More...

Our research is featured on the cover of Nature Magazine!

Open Positions:

We are looking for passionate and motivated students and postdocs to join our team. More...

Chemical Engineering Faculty Profile

Recent News

9/2/25: Bonnie wins the ACS & EC Graduate Student Award and CESASC Scholarship! Congrats Bonnie!
8/14/25: Our study highlighting the importance of corrosion film similarity on Cu and Li is out today in Energy & Environmental Science. Congrats to Keyue!
7/22/25: Our new paper on a quantitative descriptor for battery SEI films is out today in PNAS. Congrats to Bonnie and Dingyi!
7/01/25: Yuzhang officially receives tenure at UCLA. Congratulations!
6/13/25: Li Group's new invention of electrified cryo-EM (eCryo) is published today in Science Advances. Congrats Chongzhen and Justin! (UCLA Newsroom)
5/30/25: Jiayi wins the UCLA Dissertation Year Award. Congrats Jiayi!
5/27/25: Xintong wins the 2025 ECS Battery Division Student Research Award sponsored by Mercedes-Benz! Congrats Xintong.
5/23/25: Congrats to Jiayi for being awarded 4th Year Symposium Department Award!
5/2/25: Yuzhang is awarded the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award! (UCLA Engineering Newsroom) (UCLA News)
4/8/25: Congrats to Katelyn Lyle for being awarded an NSF GRFP, a tremendous achievement in a year when award rates were halved.
4/2/25: Congratulations to Xintong on being the first UCLA doctoral student selected as a Schmidt Science Fellow! (UCLA Engineering Newsroom) (UCLA News)
4/1/25: Congratulations to Xintong for defending her PhD! As a founding member of the Li group, Xintong has been instrumental to our collective success!
3/6/25: Li group's collaboration with KAIST on safe and high-rate Li metal batteries is now out in Nature Energy! (link)

2024

12/5/24: Keyue and Dingyi pass their candidacy exam. Congrats Keyue and Dingyi!
11/22/24: Congratulations to Justin for passing candidacy exam! Way to go!
11/21/24: Yuzhang named by Clarivate among world's most influential researchers for 2024 (UCLA News)
10/25/24: Xintong wins the Nano Letters Seed Grant from The Americas. Congrats Xintong!
10/21/24: Li group is awarded the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program Award! (ONR News; UCLA Newsroom)
10/8/24: Li group is awarded the NIH Director's New Innovator Award! (UCLA Newsroom)
9/5/24: Xintong wins AIChE WIC Travel Award. Congrats Xintong!
9/3/24: Li Group joins the Aqueous Battery Consortium as a Research Lead for understanding interfaces. (DOE News; UCLA Newsroom)
8/21/24: Li group is awarded the Army Research Office's Early Career Program Award! (UCLA Newsroom)
8/14/24: Li Group's recent work on electrical double layer's impact on battery SEI films is online today on Joule.
6/25/24: Li Group's perspective article on Li-S solid-state batteries is out today on Nature Chemical Engineering.
6/10/24: Hayoung wins Postdoctoral Fellowship from The National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). Congrats Hayoung!
5/31/24: Bonnie wins the UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship. Congrats Bonnie!
5/29/24: Li Group's recent work on aqueous battery cathodes is online today on Advanced Materials! (UC Highlight)
5/24/24: Xintong wins the department award at the 4th Year Symposium. Congrats Xintong!
5/21/24: Yuzhang is awarded the 2024 UCLA Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentor Award.
5/20/24: Katelyn wins the inaugural UCLA AIChE Alumni Scholarship Award. Congrats Katelyn!
5/17/24: Xin wins the Rudnick-Abelmann Scholarship. Congrats Xin!
5/14/24: Bonnie's image "Desert Oasis" is selected as one of finalists in MRS Science as Art competition. Congrats Bonnie!
5/8/24: Nick wins the Internet Research Initiative Award. Congrats Nick!
4/28/24: Julie and Richik's Chem-E Car team wins third at the AIChE Western Regional Conference competition! Congrats and good luck at nationals!
4/25/24: Justin wins the Canada Graduate Scholarship Award. Congrats Justin!
4/24/24: Congratulations to Dingyi, Justin, and Keyue for passing the PWE exam! Way to go!
4/24/24: Xintong wins MRS Graduate Student Gold Award. Congrats Xintong!
3/11/24: Congratulations to Kaiyan for passing candidacy exam! Way to go!
3/8/24: Xintong is invited to give a talk in 4th Annual Women In Microscopy Conference.
1/25/24: Li Group is awarded Scialog: Negative Emissions Science! (UCLA Newsroom)

2023

11/16/23: Yuzhang named by Clarivate among world's most influential researchers for 2023 (UCLA News)
10/20/23: Li group joins new DOE center led by the Tolbert group at UCLA! (UCLA Chemistry News; UCLA Engineering Newsroom)
10/16/23: Yuzhang joins the 2023 class of Packard Fellows supported by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation! (UCLA Newsroom)
10/06/23: Yuzhang is recognized as one of AIChE's 35 Under 35!
9/1/23: Li Group is awarded the California Climate Action Seed Grants! (UCLA Newsroom)
8/21/23: Li Group's recent work is out today on ACS Energy Lett.!
8/15/23: Xintong wins the 2023 ACS I&EC Division Graduate Student Award. Congrats Xintong!
8/14/23: Li Group is awarded the ECS Toyota Young Investigator Fellowship! (UCLA Newsroom)
8/8/23: Li Group's video: Why should high schoolers do research? has been posted to our YouTube channel!
8/2/23: Li Group's recent work is featured on the cover of Nature! (UCLA Newsroom; WeChat News; NSF Discovery Files Podcast)
5/31/23: Xintong wins the UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship. Congrats Xintong!
5/26/23: Bonnie receives UCLA Graduate Symposium Best Poster Award. Congrats Bonnie!
5/16/23: Congratulations to Kaiyan for passing the PWE exam! Way to go!
5/12/23: Xintong is accepted to present at the 2023 I&EC Division Graduate Student Award Symposium.
3/29/23: Aki wins the NSF GRFP and decides to attend Stanford MSE for his PhD. Best of luck Aki!
3/20/23: Jiayi passes his candidacy exam. Congrats Jiayi!

2022

12/22/22: It's a double feature! The Li group's first 2 papers are out today in Nature Energy and iScience! (Press Coverage: Phys org; WeChat News; UCLA)
12/6/22: Bonnie passes her condidacy exam. Congrats Bonnie!
12/1/22: Katelyn wins the prestigious Clare Boothe Luce Scholars program! Congrats Katelyn!
11/28/22: Yuzhang gives an invited seminar at UC Santa Cruz's Chemistry department.
8/6/22: Aki wins the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP)! Congrats Aki!
6/8/22: Yuzhang helps present Vito Canuso with the Department of the TA Award for Vito's exemplary 108 TA service!
6/7/22: Li Group is awarded the DOE Early Career Award! [UCLA Newsroom][WeChat News]
5/31/22: Elizabeth and Brandan host an energy careers panel, with Grace serving on the panel. Aki and Yuzhang also attended.
5/27/22: Yuzhang serves as the Nanovation mentor for the Valencia High School team, who took home first place in the Nanovation competition!
5/23/22: Anaïs is accepted into REU Decarbonization Research Position at UCI. Congrats Anaïs!
5/4/22: Yuzhang receives the Professor of the Year Award recognized by ChemE's at UCLA at the AIChE End-of-Year Banquet!
5/3/22: Yuzhang gives guest lecture on battery technologies during Elizabeth's and Brandan's CH ENGR 88S seminar on energy.
4/28/22: Katelyn and Richik present their awesome coffeemaker designs at the ChIP Showcase. Way to go!
4/28/22: Congratulations to Bonnie and Jiayi for passing their PWE exam! Great work guys!
4/23/22: Braden's Chem-E Car team wins the AIChE Western Regional Conference competition! Yuzhang also served as a judge.
4/4/22: Elizabeth wins the prestigious NSF GRFP and announces her intent to attend Stanford MSE for her PhD. Best of luck Elizabeth!
3/30/22: Vanessa is accepted into University of Washington Clean Energy Institute internship. Congrats Vanessa!
3/30/22: Braden notes he will work at PPG in Philadelphia for his summer internship as part of the Primers program. Congrats Braden!
2/15/22: Aki is accepted into DOE SULI program under Dr. Wu Xu at PNNL. Congrats Aki!
2/15/22: Xintong and Chongzhen pass their candidacy exam. Congrats Xintong and Chongzhen!
1/31/22: Li Group is awarded the NSF CAREER Award!
1/25/22: Yuzhang gives a talk at Aionics Fortnightly

2021

11/16/21: Li Group wins the ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Grant!
11/16/21: Yuzhang named by Clarivate among world's most influential researchers for 2021 (UCLA News)
11/8/21: Elizabeth and Brandan present summer research at AIChE Annual Student Conference, and Elizabeth wins 1st Place in Mat. Sci. Division
10/13/21: Yuzhang gives Noble Fund Seminar talk through UCLA CNSI
8/26/21: Elizabeth, Aki, and Brandan are selected as Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) participants
07/19/21: Elizabeth, Aki, and Brandan land summer internships at Caltech, Stanford, and PNNL!
05/28/21: Brandan receives Tau Beta Pi Scholarship
05/06/21: Yuzhang featured in ORISE Success Stories
01/31/21: Yuzhang profiled by MIT Technology Review China

2020

12/16/20: Yuzhang's Q&A featured in Boelter Society newsletter
12/09/20: Yuzhang selected to Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Science (UCLA news)
11/23/20: Yuzhang named by Clarivate among world's most influential researchers for 2021 (UCLA news)
09/01/20: Yuzhang joins Aionics advisory board
07/01/20: The Li Group is established!