Qin Li - Biography

I am an associate professor (tenure-track) at the School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences at East China Normal University (Shanghai, China) since the fall of 2022. My research interests lie in the fields of ecology, evolution, and biogeography. My past and present work have focused on understanding of biodiversity, processes of diversification, and mechanisms of species co-existence, across spatiotemporal scales, particularly about (but not limited to) plant and mountain systems.

Before this, I was a postdoctoral researcher working with Richard Ree at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. I worked on floristic structure and environmental correlates at the Hengduan Mountains of southwestern China, community assembly, niche evolution and diversification in the plant genus Rhododendron.

I received a PhD from University of British Columbia in Canada under the supervision of Amy Angert, focusing on ecological niche dynamics in western North American monkeyflowers (Mimulus sensu lato). Before this, I received a MS in Ecology (wildlife conservation and monitoring via camera traps) and a BS in Biology from Beijing Normal University in China.

In my free time, I enjoy reading, hiking, climbing, and wandering in nature.