Enlisted out of Flushing, NY, LCDR Li served onboard USS DONALD COOK (DDG 75) as an Electrician’s Mate and obtained his commission through the STA-21 program, after matriculating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering (Robotics).

Li’s division officer tours include Electronic Warfare Officer aboard USS BLUE RIDGE (LCC 19, 2013-1015), and Anti-Submarine Warfare Officer for Destroyer Squadron Seven (2015-2018).  During these two Forward Deployed tours, he planned and/or executed 17 international exercises/engagements with navies in the Indo-Pacific region to include: Exercise Sang Yong with Republic of Korea Navy, Exercise Pacific Griffin with the Republic of Singapore Navy, Exercise Guardian Sea with the Royal Thai Navy, and a Search and Rescue exercise with People’s Liberation Army (Navy).  From 2022-2024, he served as the Chief Engineer onboard USS KANSAS CITY (LCS 22), a Littoral Combat Ship used as training platform for COMLCSRON ONE in San Diego, CA.

 Ashore, LCDR Li participated in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography from 2018-2020 and earned a MS in Mechanical Engineering (Marine Autonomy).  At MIT, he conducted research in unmanned vehicle autonomy at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), with a specific focus on path planning and collision avoidance utilizing Mission Oriented Operating Suite with Interval Programming (MOOS-IvP).

LCDR Li is currently serving as a National Security Affairs Fellow at the Hoover Institution in Stanford University.