Chen Li

Chen Li is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), affiliated with the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS). He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and bachelor's and master's degrees from Tsinghua University. His research focuses on data management, including databases, query optimization, machine learning systems, and open-source tools like AsterixDB and Texera. He has received prestigious awards such as the NSF CAREER Award and IEEE Fellow recognition. Li is also a board member of the VLDB Endowment and the former Faculty Director of UCI's ICS Master of Computer Science Program.

Education:

• Ph.D., Computer Science, Stanford University
• M.S. and B.S., Computer Science, Tsinghua University

Research interests span next-generation databases, approximate query processing, and AI-driven data analytics. Notable contributions include the Texera system for collaborative data science workflows and the Apache AsterixDB project. He has led NIH-funded initiatives in diabetes research and pandemic prediction, emphasizing real-world applications of data science.

Professional roles include PC co-chair of VLDB 2015, General Co-chair of SIGMOD 2027, and a visiting research scientist at Google. His awards highlight his impact in both academia and industry.

Advising and mentoring are central to his career, with a focus on graduate education. He has pioneered outreach programs like DS4ALL to teach high-school students data science using Texera.