Prof. Xiaofan Li is currently an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hong Kong. He obtained his BSc degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 2015, and his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in 2020, both in Mechanical Engineering. He then completed his postdoc training at Virginia Tech (2021-2022) and the University of Michigan (2022-2023). Before joining HKU in spring 2025, he worked as an Assistant Research Scientist in the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan, where he served as Principle Investigator for projects funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, and UMich internal funding.

Prof. Li's research mainly focuses on marine renewable energy technology, including wave, offshore wind, and current energy. He was awarded the Virginia Tech Hord Fellowship and ASME Energy Harvesting Best Paper Award, and led different student teams to win several Marine Energy Collegiate Competition awards.