Li was born in 1976 in China and moved to the United States with her family at a young age. She earned her undergraduate degree in computer science from the University of Kansas and her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Li has received numerous awards and honors for her work, including the National Science Foundation's CAREER Award, the Office of Naval Research's Young Investigator Award, and the IEEE Computer Society's W.R.G. Baker Award. She has also been recognized as one of the most influential people in the world by TIME Magazine.