Mo Li Appointed Department Chair of UCI Civil and Environmental Engineering
Oct. 21, 2025 - The UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering named Professor Mo Li as chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) on July 1, 2025. Li oversees the department’s teaching, research and outreach activities, steering it toward shared academic and societal goals.
“Looking ahead, one of our biggest challenges is keeping engineering education in step with a rapidly changing world,” said Li. “My goals – to advance student success, strengthen research excellence and deepen our relationships with industry, the public sector and alumni – are deeply interwoven.”
A professor of civil and environmental engineering with a joint appointment in materials science and engineering, Li has been on the UCI faculty since 2016. She earned her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Tongji University and completed master’s and doctoral degrees in civil engineering along with a master’s degree in industrial and operations engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Li says she is energized by the UCI CEE community. In labs and classrooms, CEE faculty, students and researchers are exploring questions across a broad range of scales – from the molecular and materials level to structures, transportation and water systems, to the interaction between the built and natural environments, and up to ecosystems and the atmosphere.
“Our department brings together people who care deeply about tackling the big challenges in infrastructure, climate and the environment,” said Li. “Working alongside our staff, industry affiliates and alumni, we share a profound commitment to our students and a culture that values both rigor and creativity.”
Li’s own research focuses on novel materials and advanced manufacturing methods to improve the safety and sustainability of civil, energy and defense infrastructure. She directs the Laboratory of Multifunctional Materials and Advanced Manufacturing for Structures, which works at the interfaces of structural engineering, materials science and automation. Her work has led to new material technologies and structural design methods for accelerated construction and durability of bridges, long-term spent nuclear fuel storage, energy-efficient manufacturing of small modular nuclear reactors, 3D printing of seismic-resistant ultra-tall wind turbine support structures, electrochemical routes to decarbonize the cement industry, and military construction and sustainment.
She represents UCI on the Institutional Board of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER). Her professional contributions also include co-chairing conferences for the American Ceramic Society – Cement Division, the AIChE International Congress on Sustainability Science & Engineering, serving on the steering committee of International Conference on Self-Healing Materials, and technical committees of American Concrete Institute (ACI) and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Li’s passion for teaching has earned her a number of awards for teaching excellence at both the school and university levels, as well as from the American Society for Engineering Education, including the Samueli School of Engineering Innovation in Teaching Award and CEE Professor of the Year. She teaches Statics – a foundational course that serves 200~300 undergraduate students each quarter from more than five engineering majors.
Li succeeded Professor Jean-Daniel Saphores, who was appointed director of UCI’s Institute of Transportation Studies, also effective July 1, 2025.
– Lori Brandt
