Carnegie Mellon University
July 06, 2020

Chemistry Alumnus Receives Prestigious Award from Chinese Government

By Ben Panko

Chemistry Ph.D. alumnus Sipei Li has been recognized with the Chinese Government Award for Self-Financed Students Abroad.

"This award is definitely a recognition of my work at Carnegie Mellon University," Li said. "I wouldn’t have achieved this award without the support of my advisor, Professor of Chemistry Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, and the whole Chemistry Department as a family."

At Carnegie Mellon, Li's research was focused on applying polymer chemistry to biomedicine and energy storage. His work using synthetic functional polymers to make biocompatible siRNA carriers has received a patent, and he has also developed a series of polymer-based electrolyte and anode materials for lithium metal batteries. In 2019, Li received the Guy C. Berry Graduate Student Research Award.

Li is currently a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he is continuing his research into batteries by polymer electrolyte and mass transport in confined space.