Since the 1980s, she has been studying the atomic layer molecular beam epitaxy growth and interface control, group Ⅲ-Ⅴ compound semiconductor quantum structure material, characterization and its application in high speed electronic devices and detectors. Since the 1990s, she has been mainly engaged in the research of Mid-IR band intron and transition QCL, interband transition multi-quantum-well laser materials and devices, and the relevant physics research. Researcher Li has published 235 papers and three treatises, and was granted 17 national patents of invention. She has won five National Scientific and Technological Progress awards and National Invention Awards, and eight Natural Science Awards of province and ministry level, first and second prizes of Scientific and Technological Progress Awards of the CAS, as well as the Golden Bull Award of the Ministry of Science and Technology. She was honored as the Woman Pacesetter of the Nation, Urban Female Contribution Model of the Nation, Shanghai Labor Model. She was granted the “Excellent Returned Overseas Chinese, Intellectual of Overseas Chinese and Their Relatives of the Nation”, “Advanced Individual of Returned Overseas Chinese and Their Relatives of the Nation” and other honors by State Council Overseas Chinese Office and the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese. She was granted the honorable title of “Outstanding Contribution Teacher” by the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2008. Researcher Li won the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Engineering Science Award in 2004 and was elected Foreign Academician of U.S. National Academy of Sciences in May 2007.