Shanjun Li is the Steven and Roberta Denning Professor of Global Sustainability in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He directs the Sustainability and Energy Transition Program at Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions (SCCEI). His research focuses on environmental and energy economics, urban and transportation economics, empirical industrial organization, and the Chinese economy. His recent work examines pressing sustainability challenges and the rapid rise of clean energy industries in China, exploring their global implications to support evidence-based policymaking.

Prior to joining Stanford, he held the Kenneth L. Robinson Chair in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University and served as the Director of the Cornell Institute for China Economic Research. He is a co-editor for the Journal of Public Economics and the International Journal of Industrial Organization. He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a university fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF).