Xueke Li

Li Xueke is a climate scientist specializing in Arctic research who left a research associate position in the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Earth and Environmental Science to join City University of Hong Kong (CityU) as an assistant professor in the School of Energy and Environment in May 2026, after more than a decade of study and work in the United States.

Li earned her BEng from Taiyuan University of Technology in 2011, an MS in Cartography and Geographic Information Systems from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2014, and moved to the US the same year, completing her PhD in Geography at the University of Connecticut in 2019. She then worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University's Institute for Environment and Society until 2022, before joining Penn as a postdoctoral fellow in 2023 and becoming a research associate there in 2025.

Li's research examines the dynamics and impacts of climate, air, and water systems using AI, machine learning, remote sensing, and GIS, with a focus on how Arctic warming reshapes shipping routes and extreme weather globally. She has found that Arctic shipping routes can cut distances by up to 40 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 30 percent compared to the Suez Canal route. She cited the Trump administration's proposal to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and broader funding and political uncertainty in US climate research, as factors in her decision to leave, saying: "This is an unhealthy environment." She said Hong Kong's position at the intersection of climate science, innovation, and global connectivity was its biggest draw, adding that despite relocating, she intends to continue collaborating with US-based researchers since "climate science has no boundaries."