Yuanwei Li

For More Information

• Yuanwei Li Stanford Profile
• Google scholar

Education

• Stanford Science Fellow, Postdoctoral Fellow, Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University
• Ph.D., Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University

Academic Positions

• Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering (100%)
• Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (0%)
• Assistant Professor, Holonyak Micro and Nanotechnology Lab (0%)
• Assistant Professor, Materials Research Laboratory (0%)

Research Statement

The Li Lab integrates materials science, nanofabrication, and optical physics to tackle challenges in energy and human health through the design and fabrication of nano-architected photonic materials. We approach transdisciplinary problems through the lens of optics, creating multiscale nanophotonic structures that encode and transduce chemically and biologically relevant information into light.

By engineering nanoscale light-matter interactions, we develop optical sensors for sensitive, high-throughput, real-time health monitoring and pursue photonic devices for energy-efficient data processing and computing. Our core strategy is a synthesis-by-design paradigm, combining bottom-up self-assembly and chemical synthesis with top-down lithography to construct hybrid dielectric-metallic and semiconductor-plasmonic architectures that unite the best of both worlds.

Through advances in precise synthesis, nanofabrication, and AI-driven spectroscopy and imaging, we are developing a versatile toolkit of nanophotonic metamaterials - opening new windows into the mechanisms that govern light, life, and energy at the molecular scale.

Research Interests

• Nanophotonic materials
• Biosensing
• Light and AI-driven spectroscopy and imaging
• Self-assembly and advanced nanofabrication
• Nanoparticles and hybrid architectures (dielectric, metallic, and semiconductor)

Selected Articles in Journals

• Y. Li, W. Zhou, I. Tanriover, W. Hadibrata, B. E. Partridge, H. Lin, X. Hu, B. Lee, J. Liu, V. P. Dravid, K. Aydin, C. A. Mirkin, Open-channel metal particle superlattices. Nature, 611, 695-701 (2022).
• Y. Li, H. Lin, W. Zhou, L. Sun, D. Samanta, C. A. Mirkin, Corner-, edge-, and facet-controlled growth of nanocrystals. Science Advances, 7, eabf1410 (2021).
• Y. Li, W. Zhou, Y. Zhou, H. F. Cheng, B. Lee, X. Hu, E. W. Roth, V. P. Dravid, S. C. Glotzer, C. A. Mirkin, Cocrystals combining order and correlated disorder via colloidal crystal engineering with DNA. Science Advances, 11, eadu4919 (2025).
• Y. Li, H. Jin, W. Zhou, Z. Wang, Z. Lin, C. A. Mirkin, H. D. Espinosa, Ultrastrong colloidal crystal metamaterials engineered with DNA. Science Advances, 9, eadj8103 (2023).
• W. Zhou*, Y. Li*, K. Je, T. Vo, H. Lin, B. E. Partridge, Z. Huang, S. C. Glotzer, C. A. Mirkin, Space-tiled colloidal crystals from DNA-forced shape-complementary polyhedra pairing. Science 383, 312-319 (2024).
• I. Tanriover*, Y. Li*, T. E. Gage, I. Arslan, H. Liu, C. A. Mirkin, K. Aydin, Unveiling Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Plasmon-Enhanced Localized Fields in Metallic Nanoframes through Ultrafast Electron Microscopy. ACS Nano 18, 28258-28267 (2024).

Honors

• Stanford Science Fellow (2023-)
• CAS Future Leader (2025)
• Ryan Fellow (2020-2023)
• MRS Graduate Student Award (2022)
• MIT Chemical Engineering Rising Stars (2023)
• Rising Stars in Soft and Biological Matter (2024)
• IIN Outstanding Research Award (2022)
• Distinguished Graduate Researcher Award (2023)
• Fellowship in Leadership (2021)
• Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship (2022)
• SPIE Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship (2022)