College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences

Appointment

Dr. Hui Li is a Professor of Environmental Soil Chemistry at Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University with 75% of research and 25% teaching appointment. He also serves as Associate Director of Center for PFAS Research, and Director of the Center Analytical Chemistry Laboratory, Michigan State University.

Research Program

Dr. Li has established national and international recognized environmental soil chemistry program with research foci on (1) analysis, sorption, transformation, bioavailability, and plant uptake of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, and legacy organic contaminants in the environment, (2) understanding of fundamental sorption and transformation processes in clay-water systems at molecular scale, (3) plant uptake of organic contaminants from soil and water, and (4) development of environmental remediation technology and mitigation management strategies for environmental contamination.

Grants

Dr. Li’s research program has been continuously funded by USDA, EPA, NIH, NSF and DoD since he joined Michigan State University. As PI and a co-PI, he has secured approximately 15 million dollars of research grants from these competitive research programs of federal agencies. Currently, he is the PI of the research grants from EPA National Priorities Program, EPA STAR Program, USDA/NIFA AFRI Foundational and Applied Science Program, USDA-NRCS (subaward), and DoD-SERDP (subaward), and a co-PI contributing to the projects from NIH Superfund Research Program, USDA/NIFA AFRI Foundational and Applied Science Program, and Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Publication

Dr. Li has published over 180 peer-reviewed articles in major journals of environmental science and engineering, and soil sciences. These publications have been widely cited with an H-index of 63. The detailed publication list could be found at google scholar.

Teaching Course

• CSS 330 Soil Chemistry (2 credits, including lecture and laboratory sections with Dr. Brian Teppen)
• CSS 865 Environmental Organic Chemistry (3 credits)
• ESP 801 Physical, Chemical and Biological Processes of the Environment (3 credits, with other three faculty members from geoscience, social science, and engineering). In this course his teaching module focuses on environmental chemical processes.

Service

Dr. Li served many times as a member on several USDA/NIFA and NSF grant review panels. Recently, he served on EPA Science Advisory Board, and EPA Agricultural Science Committee. Currently, he serves on National Academies of Sciences Committee of Assistance to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Building a Framework for Addressing PFAS on Agricultural Land.

Dr. Li also served on many committees of Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), and American Society of Agronomy (ASA). He chaired the Division of Soils and Environmental Quality (2017) SSSA, and led the Community of Animal Agriculture and the Environment (2021) ASA. He served as an associate editor for Journal of Environmental Quality (2009-2014).

At MSU, he served on the search committees for several faculty and administrative positions. He was elected to the Promotion and Tenure Committee (2022-2025), College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and chaired the committee during 2024-2025. He was also appointed as an administrative fellow for MSU AgBioResearch during 2023-2024.

Awards and Honors

• MSU William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award, 2024-2025
• Environmental Quality Research Award, American Society of Agronomy, 2023
• MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Research Fellow (Career) Award, 2023
• Fellow, American Society of Agronomy, 2021
• Fellow, Soil Science Society of America, 2018
• Jackson Soil Chemistry and Mineralogy Award, Soil Science Society of America, 2017
• Outstanding Associate Editor of Journal of Environmental Quality, 2013

Laboratory Members

Visiting Postdoctoral Research Associate/Scientist

• Sara Baustert
• Yan Chen (co-advisor with Dr. Brian Teppen)
• Kirankumar Pushpakumar Sheebakumari (co-advisor with Dr. Brian Teppen)
• Xunhao Wang

PhD Student

• Harley Curtiss
• Andrew Huang
• Yujie Wang
• Zhiliang Xu

Visiting Scholar

• Zhenhua Zhao

Team Events

• October 2025 - Soil Chemistry and Soil Physics weekly group meeting:
  
  
  
• July 2025 - Farewell party for Dr. Qianqian Dong, a postdoctoral trainee who will assume a faculty position at Texas A&M University: