Dr. Yi Li is a full professor and chair in Textile Science and Engineering in the Department of Materials, School of Natural Science, the University of Manchester. He is a Life Fellow of Royal Society of Art, Commerce and Manufacturing and International Biographical Association, Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and Fellow of the Textile Institute, and adjunct professors of a number of universities in China and a member of several professional bodies. He is the Chairman of Textile Bioengineering and Informatics Society and the Editor-in-Chief of “Journal of Fiber Bioengineering and Informatics”. By securing substantial research funding and obtaining support from government funding bodies and industry, he established the Textile Bioengineering Framework to conduct systematic research in textile thermal bioengineering, biomechanical engineering, sensory bioengineering and biomedical engineering, with significant research outputs in biomaterials, nano scale drug delivery systems, nano fiber based scaffolds and textile devices for tissue engineering and stents, smart materials and intelligent e-textile wearables, textile material functional testing and characterization, digital apparel and clothing functional design, textile ecological and carbon footprint and industry sustainability and strategic technology roadmap development, which has become an international platform of design and engineering textiles to promote industry-university cooperation and accelerate technology transfer.

He has supervised over 68 PhD students and more than 150 research personnel. He has over 600 scientific publications with 21483 citations and h-index of 78 and i10-index 303 as being recognized as an international leading expert in smart functional textiles. He is on the list of 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 global top 2% Scientists by Elsevier via Scopus data.

He owns 56 granted patents and 41 IP properties transferred to industry. With over 160 invited keynote/plenary lectures in conferences, he has more than 53 awards on outstanding research papers, patent inventions and technology transfer. The inventions from his team have been successfully commercialized. For example, the “Moisture Management Tester” won outstanding innovation and technology transfer awards (2010, Hong Kong), and has been sold to 47 countries and developed as the national testing standards in USA and China. The Fabric Touch Tester (FTT) won gold award (2013, Geneva) and has been sold to 23 countries. The high performance sportswear designed and developed by his team has been successfully transferred to industry and utilized to support elite athletes in major sports competitions in the world, including 2008 Beijing Olympic Game and 2012 London Olympic Game. A number of patents in smart e-textiles have been successfully transferred to industry. The Anti-Heat Stress Clothing for Construction Workers won grand prize and gold medal (2016, Geneva), Hong Kong Contraction Industry Council Grand prize (2015), Charted Institute of Building (CIOB) International Innovation & Research Awards (UK, 2015), and has been transferred to Hong Kong Construction Industry and become a standard recommendation.

He has carried out extensive research in PPEs, including Nano Facemasks (Gold Medal, EUREKA 2005, Brussels) and Virus Stopper protective clothing (Silver Medal, Geneva, April 2006) against SARS in 2003, which have been transferred to industry. He is currently working closely with international academic and industrial partners to develop novel technologies and products for combating COVID19 pandemic, including the following topics: (1) Remote Diagnosis and Digital Surveillance System for combatting COVID-19 Pandemic; (2)Personal Protection and Epidemic Control of 2019-NCoV Outbreak; (3) Smart Multichannel Diagnosis System for Managing COVID-19 Pandemic; (4)  Novel high protective reusable facemasks and (5) High Performance Reusable Personal Protective Clothing.

Also, he has actively involved in development of international standards as expert committee members in ISO, IEC, CEN, BSI and AATCC.  Particularly, he is now actively engaging in CEN/CLC JTC 24 Digital Product Passport (DPP) and ISO TC154 via BSI/47/-/3 “E-business” to develop DPP standards for supporting EU ESPR compliance.

Textile Bioengineering, including textile thermal bioengineering, biomechanical engineering, sensory bioengineering and biomedical engineering, with extensive research in biomaterials, nano scale drug delivery systems, nano fiber based scaffolds and textile devices for tissue engineering and stents, nano functional textile materials, smart materials, e-textiles and intelligent textile wearables, textile material functional testing and characterization, digital apparel and clothing functional design, cloud computational modelling and simulation, big data and digital new business models for fashion and textile supply chain management, textile ecological and carbon footprint and industry sustainability and strategic technology roadmap development.

Research in PPEs and Pandemic control: Remote Diagnosis and Digital Surveillance System; Personal Protection and infection Control; Smart Multichannel Diagnosis System; Novel high protective reusable facemasks; and High Performance Reusable Personal Protective Clothing.

• Biomaterials
• Polymers Composites and Carbon
• Textile and Apaprel

Postgraduate study opportunities in the following areas:

• Textile bioengineering, including: textile thermal bioengineering, biomechanical engineering, sensory bioengineering and biomedical engineering;
• Nano scale drug delivery systems;
• Nano fiber based scaffolds and textile devices for tissue engineering and stents;
• Nano functional textile materials;
• Smart materials, e-textiles and intelligent textile wearables;
• Biosensors;
• Digital health;
• Textile material functional testing and characterization;
• Digital apparel and clothing functional design and e-Learning;
• Cloud computational modelling and simulation, big data and novel digital business models for fashion and textile supply chain management;
• Textile ecological and carbon footprint; Industry sustainability and strategic technology roadmap development;
• Remote Diagnosis and Digital Surveillance System;
• Personal Protection and infection Control;
• Smart Multichannel Diagnosis System;
• Novel high protective reusable facemasks;
• High Performance Reusable Personal Protective Clothing;
• Supply Chain Digital Twin;
• Fashion Big Data Platform;
• Material Digitization, Product digitization, Process Digitization and AI Data driven business models;
• Textile Circularity, Sustaianbility, ECODESIGN and Digital Product Passport.

Prof. and Dr. Henry, Yi LI

Professor and Chair of Textile Science and Engineering

Chairman, Textile Bioengineering and Informatics Society

Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Fiber Bioengineering and Informatics

Department of Materials, School of Natural Sciences, The University of Manchester

MECD Engineering Building A, Grosvenor Street, Manchester,M1 7HL

Tel: +44 (0) 161 529 3657

Email: henry.yili@manchester.ac.uk