Perry Li

Perry Li is a full professor and the current department head of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Arizona. He joined the faculty at the U of A in 2006 when he was a research associate in the University of Pittsburgh. Perry earned his Ph.D. in 1995 from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. 

Perry has been working on a number of research topics in the area of energy and power engineering. His research works include: development of a high temperature molten salt heat transfer fluid (for concentrating solar power) with investigation to the thermal and transport properties as well as convective heat transfer, thermal energy storage, solar thermal desalination and water treatment, the multiphysics of flow, heat/mass transfer and electrochemistry in fuel cells and electrolysis cells, thermal management for hydrogen production using hydrocarbon fuels in reactors with reforming and shift reactions, heat transfer enhancement, and drag reduction in turbulent flow. His work has been funded by DOE, ONR, ARMY, EPA, NSF, and U of A, totaled to a level of $9.0M. Perry has published 1 book, 5 book chapters, 113 peer-reviewed journal papers, 100 peer-reviewed conference papers, and 3 US patents. His teaching covers courses including thermodynamics, heat transfer, numerical methods in fluid flow and heat transfer, lab instrumentation, fuel cells, and renewable energy technologies. He is an ASME member and serves as an associate editor of Solar Energy.