Xinlin Li

Dr. Xinlin Li received his BS degree from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1982, a MS degree in physics from the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics in 1985, and a Ph.D. degree in Physics from Dartmouth College in 1992.

Following his doctorate, Dr. Li spent eight years as a postdoctoral researcher and research associate at Dartmouth College and later at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder. He then joined CU as a faculty member in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, where he currently serves as a Full Professor.

Dr. Li’s expertise lies in solar wind energy coupling into Earth’s magnetosphere, energetic particle dynamics within the solar system, and Earth’s magnetosphere, as well as instrument development and CubeSat missions. He has led two successful CubeSat missions: the NSF-funded Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment (CSSWE), operational from September 2012 to December 2014, and the NASA-funded Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE), operational from April 2023 to October 2024. His work with CSSWE data culminated in a high-impact publication in Nature in 2017.

In addition to his mission leadership, Dr. Li spearheaded the development of the Medium Energy Electron Telescope (MEET), a NASA-funded instrument designed to measure electrons in the 30–800 keV energy range.

He has authored or co-authored over 250 peer-reviewed publications and is widely recognized for his contributions to space physics.

In 2021, Dr. Li was honored as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).