Chao Li was born and raised in Taiyuan, Shanxi, known as the largest coal mining center in China. His parents are both mechanical engineers.

Chao is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering at the University of Florida, where he has received a prestigious four-year UF Alumni Fellowship Award. He was named an Outstanding International Student by the UF International Center in 2010. He was a Ph.D. recipient of the annual Attributes of a Gator Engineer Recognition Award, one of the highest honors that can be received by a student in the College of Engineering at UF.

Chao's work focuses broadly on computer architecture design and sustainable computing systems. He has received the IEEE HPCA 2011 Best Paper Award. He is also the winner of the Yahoo! 2012 Key Scientific Challenges Award in the area of Green Computing.

Prior to coming to UF, Chao earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Zhejiang University, one of the most prestigious universities in China. He is an alumnus of the Mixed Honors Class in Chu Kochen Honors College, an elite undergraduate program at Zhejiang University. In Aug. 2008, he attended UCLA as a short-term visiting student.

Chao has many interests outside of computer. It is great to be a Gator!