Zongyi Li

Zongyi Li is a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT and will join NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Data Science in Fall 2026. His research focuses on developing neural operator methods to accelerate scientific computing. Zongyi received his PhD in Computing and Mathematical Sciences from Caltech, where he was advised by Anima Anandkumar and Andrew Stuart. He holds undergraduate degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis (2015-2019). His work has been supported by Kortschak Scholarship, PIMCO Fellowship, Amazon AI4Science Fellowship, Nvidia Fellowship, and MIT-Novo Nordisk AI Fellowship. He has also completed three summer internships at Nvidia.

AI2050 Project

Destructive wildfires are an increasing threat to communities and ecosystems. Li’s project uses artificial intelligence (AI) to design safe and effective prescribed burns to prevent later dangerous uncontrolled wildfires. These beneficial fires clear out overgrown vegetation that fuels catastrophic fires. Their AI tools will analyze complex data like weather patterns and fuel conditions to help fire managers pinpoint the best times and locations for these controlled burns. By optimizing prescribed fires, they aim to significantly reduce the risk of large, uncontrolled wildfires, leading to safer communities, healthier forests, and cleaner air for everyone.