Yan Li joined the Dartmouth Engineering faculty in January as an assistant professor of engineering. Her research focuses on the mechanics of advanced materials, and involves multiscale, multi-physics modeling. Li taps integrated computational and experimental approaches to develop next-generation material design. “I believe curiosity drives innovation,” says Li, who earned her PhD at the Georgia Institute of Technology and her MA at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. “I like my students to think outside the box and be creative about problem-solving.” Li previously collaborated with Boeing, Gulfstream, and GE, and her research has been supported by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and the National Science Foundation’s Center for Computational Materials Design.