Michael Li

Michael Li
NationalityAmerican
Alma materRockefeller College, Princeton University (BS), (PhD)
Churchill College, University of Cambridge (Masters)
Cornell Tech, Cornell University (Postdoc)
Oregon Episcopal School
Occupation(s)Data Scientist, Entrepreneur
Known forThe Data Incubator
AwardsIntel Science Talent Search (2003)
Marshall Scholarship (2006)
Hertz Fellowship (2007)
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (2007)
Websitehttps://tianhui.li/
Michael Li
Traditional Chinese李天惠
Simplified Chinese李天惠
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinLǐ Tiānhuì

Michael Li (born 1985, Portland, Oregon; Chinese name: Tianhui Li) is an American data scientist, entrepreneur, and the founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Data Incubator, a data science training and placement company. Since 2023, he has also been serving as CTO at Aerial,[1] a legal-tech start-up helping companies manage their corporate information and scale fast.

Early life

Li attended Oregon Episcopal School in Portland, Oregon. In 2001, he was selected to perform with the Oregon Symphony.[2] In 2003, he built a "desktop nuclear fusion reactor" based on work at NASA and won second place and $75,000 at the Intel Science Talent Search ,[3][4] becoming the youngest person to date to build a "fusor" desktop nuclear fusion reactor and receiving press coverage in The New York Times.[5] As a result of the competition, he has an asteroid (15083 Tianhuili) named after him.[6] He was also a semifinalist at the Siemens Westinghouse Competition, founder of Oregon Episcopal School's science bowl team, and a member of USA Today High School All-America First Team in 2003.[7]

Academic career

Michael Li studied at Cambridge University as a Marshall Scholar and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Marshall Scholars.

Li graduated from Princeton University in 2007 with degrees in mathematics and computer science.[8] In 2006, he was selected as a Marshall Scholar[9] and in 2007, he was selected as both a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a Hertz Fellow.[10] The Marshall Scholarship program was established in 1953 as a British gesture of gratitude toward the United States for the assistance received after World War II under the Marshall Plan; the Hertz Foundation awards $250,000 fellowships to Ph.D. students in the applied physical, biological and engineering sciences. Li read Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at Churchill College, Cambridge and completed his PhD at Princeton University. He was one of two former USA Today High School Academic All-America First Team members to be also selected for the USA Today College All-America First Team.[11] He was a fellow of the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program[12] and co-chaired Princeton University's Undergraduate Research Symposium's steering committee.[8]

Li's academy research focused on mathematical finance. He has written a number of papers in the field, including a number coauthored with Robert Almgren on market impact and market microstructure and Patrick Cheridito on risk measures on L^p spaces.[13] He was selected for the prestigious Cornell Tech Runway Program postdoc.[14]

Professional life

After graduating, Li worked at D.E. Shaw, J.P. Morgan, and Bloomberg and became the first data scientist in residence at Andreessen Horowitz.[15][16] He headed data science monetization at Foursquare.[17][18] He is a regular contributor to publications like Harvard Business Review,[19] MIT Sloan Management Review,[20] Tech Crunch,[21] Venture Beat,[22] Fast Company,[23] Entrepreneur Magazine,[24] and The Wall Street Journal[25] discussing topics around equality in hiring, data analytics, and mathematics education.

In 2013, he founded The Data Incubator, a data science education company. The firm is best known for a free fellowship that helps students with PhDs transition from careers in academia to data science. The program attracts thousands of applicants regularly and is more selective than Harvard University.[26] Li founded the program based on his own experience as a PhD trying to enter industry and data scientist hiring manager.[3] The Data Incubator has received press coverage in Financial Times,[27] VentureBeat,[26] Computerworld,[28] and The Next Web.[29] He has been invited to speak at various conferences in the United Kingdom,[30] Malaysia,[31] Beijing,[32] Shanghai,[33] and at MIT Sloan School of Management.[34]

Li serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of Marshall Scholars[35] and America Needs You, an American non-profit that pairs low-income first-generation college students with professional mentors.[36] He is also an advisor for The Innovation Enterprise,[37] Expii, the LendIt,[33] a member of the O'Reilly Strata programming committee,[38] and the National Leadership Council for Society for Science and the Public.[39]

References

  1. ^ "Why Aerial - Our Story". Aerial. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  2. ^ "Metro Arts Overview" (PDF). Retrieved 2017-05-11.[permanent dead link‍]
  3. ^ a b "Top Teen Scientists Honored At Intel Science Talent Search". 2003-03-11. Retrieved 2017-05-10.
  4. ^ Zimmermann, Phoebe; Doughty, Bob (2003-03-17). "Science in the News". Voice of America. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  5. ^ Medina, Jennifer (2003-03-12). "Treatment for Infections Takes Top High School Science Prize". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-06-11.
  6. ^ "15083 Tianhuili (1999 CJ34)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  7. ^ Wong Briggs, Tracey (2003-05-14). "USA Today 2003 High School All Stars". USA Today. Retrieved 2018-07-11.
  8. ^ a b Quiñones, Eric (2006-12-05). "Four seniors named Marshall Scholars". Princeton News. Retrieved 2018-07-21.
  9. ^ "Marshall Scholars 2007". Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  10. ^ "Hertz Foundation Profile". Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  11. ^ Blass, Eileen. "2007 All Stars Cover". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
  12. ^ "Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program Profile". Retrieved 2008-07-04.
  13. ^ "Social Science Research Network Profile for Tianhui Michael Li". Retrieved 2017-06-21.
  14. ^ "Runway Alumni". Retrieved 2017-08-12.
  15. ^ Gan-El, Oshrit (2020-01-14). "Israel Innovation Authority to help train data scientists". Globes.
  16. ^ "Alumni to watch: Michael Li & The Data Incubator".
  17. ^ "O'Reilly Radar Profile".
  18. ^ "Innovation Enterprise Profile" (PDF).
  19. ^ Michael Li (2016-08-06). "The Question to Ask Before Hiring a Data Scientist". Harvard Business Review.
  20. ^ Michael Li (2017-11-15). "ive Technical Experts a Role in Defining Project Success". MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved 2017-08-19.
  21. ^ Michael Li (2016-10-19). "The perils of polling in a Brexit and Donald Trump world". Tech Crunch.
  22. ^ Michael Li (2016-07-04). "How to combat your company's tech hiring bias". Venture Beat. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
  23. ^ Michael Li (2015-08-14). "How To Get Past Buzzwords And Make Better Hires". Fast Company. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  24. ^ Michael Li (2016-04-05). "What Hiring Managers Don't Understand About Hiring for Data Science". Entrepreneur Magazine.
  25. ^ Tianhui Michael Li (2016-03-04). "Math for the 21st Century". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  26. ^ a b Blattberg, Eric (2014-04-15). "NY Gets New Bootcamp for Data Scientists: It's free but Harder to get into than Harvard". Venture Beat.
  27. ^ Adam Jones (2016-03-20). "MIT's $75,000 Big Data finishing school (and its many rivals) like The Data Inccubator". Financial Times.
  28. ^ Vijayan, Jaikumar (2014-05-01). "Cornell Tech funded startup launching bootcamp for data scientists". Computerworld.
  29. ^ Swanner, Nate (2015-07-02). "Data Incubator Opens a West Coast Campus to Groom the Next Generation of Data Scientists". The Next Web.
  30. ^ Scottish Enterprise (8 March 2016). "Data Science Bootcamp".
  31. ^ Kit Hoong, Tan (2015-11-03). "Train to be a data scientist". The Star.
  32. ^ O'Reilly Strata. "Speaker Profile".
  33. ^ a b LendIt Financial. "Speaker Profile".
  34. ^ MIT Sloan Data Analytics Society (6 March 2014). "Speaker Profile".
  35. ^ "Marshall Board of Directors".
  36. ^ "America Needs You Governing Board". 3 August 2021.
  37. ^ "Innovation Enterprise Advisory Board".
  38. ^ Lorica, Ben (2016-09-15). "Data science for humans and data science for machines". O'Reilly Media.
  39. ^ Society for Science and the Public. "National Leadership Council".