Zhijin Li

Li Zhijin is a senior data scientist who worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for more than 20 years before taking a position as a distinguished professor and PhD mentor with the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Li is an expert in marine data analysis, developing data processing tools used by NASA, the US Navy, and other US government agencies to process marine datasets gathered by satellites, buoys, and ships. His work took place at JPL, which was co-founded by Qian Xuesen, the founding father of China's own rocket program. Li's move to Fudan sparked discussion on Chinese social media as an early example of the "reverse brain drain" phenomenon, occurring amid a period of increased scrutiny of researchers with connections to China by US federal investigators. It remains unclear exactly when Li accepted the Fudan offer.