Ms. Yi Li - Inamori Fellow 2012

The Department of Physics is delighted to announce that Ms. Yi Li has been selected as the 2012 recipient of the Inamori Fellowship. Inamori Fellowships are awarded annually to one or two of our best and brightest graduate students who are expected to contribute to the future of humanity through a balance of scientific progress and the human spirit.

Ms. Li entered the Ph.D. program in Physics at UC San Diego in 2009, after obtaining her M.S. in Physics from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, where she ranked at the top of her class and received multiple awards for her academic achievements. Ms. Li is a condensed matter theorist, with current research interests in the areas of topological insulators and superconductors, quantum Hall effects, unconventional Cooper pairing, Fermi liquid theory, and magnetic dipolar interactions. She already has 8 publications and preprints to her credit, and is first author on 7 of these. Ms. Li is an outstanding researcher on many levels.

She encapsulates the true essence of how a scientist is defined. Her relentless efforts to make new discoveries are not only demonstrated in her academic achievements, but also through her enthusiasm for her projects. This contagious energy makes her a natural born leader within her group. She believes that the internal harmony of nature, expressed through the natural laws of physics, is beautiful. Her passion for physics is exceeded solely by her dedication to science.