Youli Li

Biography

After receiving a Ph.D in biophysics from Brandeis University, Dr. Li joined the Materials Research Laboratory at UC Santa Barbara in 1994. He is currently a research professor and technical director of the central x-ray diffraction facility at UCSB. His research interests include developing methods, techniques and instrumentation for advanced x-ray diffraction characterization of materials. Dr. Li is the inventor of the scatterless x-ray slit technology which has become widely used in laboratory and synchrotron based small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) instruments. Dr. Li’s research work has contributed to the application of x-ray diffraction in a broad range of nanostructured materials, including structural composites, semiconductor epitaxial structures, biological assemblies, and polymers.

Job Responsibilities

The X-ray Diffraction Facility provides x-ray diffraction characterization in support of a broad range of research programs at UCSB. Our research program has two broad fronts: 1.) to develop new methods, techniques and instruments to advance the capabilities of XRD, and 2.) to apply XRD in complex materials characterization to understand the structural properties from angstrom to sub-micrometer scale.