Michael Li

Dr. Tianhui Michael Li is an American data scientist and the founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Data Incubator, a data science training company.

Early life

Li attended Oregon Episcopal School. In 2001, he was selected to perform with the Oregon Symphony.^[1] In 2003, he built a "desktop nuclear fusion reactor" based on work at NASA and won second place and $75,000 at the Intel Science Talent Search ,^[2][3] becoming one of the youngest people to ever build a "fusor" fusion reactor. As a result of the competition, he has a minor planet (15083 Tianhuili) named after him. He was also a semifinalist at the Siemens Westinghouse Competition, editor of his high school newspaper, and founded Oregon Episcopal School's science bowl team.^[4] He was named a USA Today High School All-America First Team in 2003.^[4]

Academic Life

He graduated from Princeton University in 2007 with degrees in mathematics and computer science.^[5] In 2007, he was selected as both a Marshall Scholar^[6] and as a Hertz Fellow.^[7] The Marshall Scholarship were established in 1953 as a British gesture to the United States for the assistance received after World War II under the Marshall Plan; the Hertz Foundation awards $250,000 fellowships to Ph.D. students in the applied physical, biological and engineering sciences. Li read Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at Churchill College, Cambridge and completed his PhD at Princeton. He was one of two former USA Today High School Academic All-America First Team members to be also selected for the USA Today College All-America First Team.^[8] He was a fellow of the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program^[9] and co-chaired Princeton University's Undergraduate Research Symposium's steering committee.^[5]

As an academic, he wrote a number of papers on mathematical finance, including a number coauthored with Robert Almgren on optimal execution and Patrick Cheridito on dynamic risk measures.^[10] He was selected for the prestigious Cornell Tech Runway Program postdoc.^[11]

Professional Life

After graduating, Li worked at D.E. Shaw, J.P. Morgan, and Bloomberg and became the first data scientist in residence at Andreessen Horowitz.^[12] He headed data science monetization at Foursquare.^[13][14] He is a regular contributor to publications like Harvard Business Review,^[15] Tech Crunch,^[16] Venture Beat ,^[17] Fast Company, ^[18] and the Wall Street Journal ^[19] discussing topics around equality in hiring, data science, and mathematics education.

In 2013, he founded The Data Incubator, a free fellowship to help PhDs transition from careers in academia to data science. The program attracts thousands of applicants regularly and is more selective than Harvard University.^[20] Li founded the program based on his own experience as a PhD trying to enter industry and data scientist hiring manager^[2] and The Data Incubator been mentioned in the Financial Times,^[21] VentureBeat,^[20] Computer World,^[22] and The Next Web.^[23]

Li serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of Marshall Scholars^[24] and America Needs You, an American non-profit that pairs low-income first-generation college students with professional mentors.^[25] He is also an advisor for The Innovation Enterrpsie,^[26] Expii, the LendIt,^[27] and a member of the O'Reilly Strata programming committee.^[28]

References