Li is originally from China, where both of her parents are engineers; she followed them into engineering despite her father's wish for her to become a physician,[1] and graduated in 1985 from Xidian University.[3] She came to Ohio State University for graduate study in electrical engineering, earned a master's degree there in 1987, and completed her Ph.D. in 1991.[1]
After completing her doctorate, she took at the position at the University of Kentucky before moving to the University of Florida two years later.[1]
^ abcdefGhoraani, Behnaz (December 2019), "Dr. Jian Li", Series to Highlight Women in Signal Processing, Inside Signal Processing Newsletter, IEEE Signal Processing Society