Professor Ping Li was appointed Dean of Humanities and Social Science from February 2026. He is a Chair Professor in the Division of Social Science

Prior to joining the University, Professor Li served as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Sin Wai Kin Foundation Professor in Humanities and Technology, and Chair Professor of Neurolinguistics and Bilingual Studies at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His distinguished career also includes a previous tenure as Professor of Psychology, Linguistics, and Information Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University. Professor Li’s exceptional standing in the academic community is demonstrated by his significant leadership roles, including Program Director for Cognitive Neuroscience and for Perception, Action, and Cognition at the U.S. National Science Foundation; China’s Ministry of Education Changjiang Chair Professor; and President of the Society for Computation in Psychology. His scholarly influence is further recognized through his elected fellowships in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Cognitive Science Society, the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities, and his editorial leadership as Editor-in-Chief of Brain and Language and Senior Editor of Cognitive Science (following his prior role as Co-Editor of Bilingualism: Language and Cognition).

Professor Li’s research focuses on the neurocognitive and computational bases of language acquisition, bilingualism, and reading comprehension. He leverages emerging technologies and methodologies in AI and cognitive science to study neuroplasticity, aiming to understand the dynamic relationships among language, culture, technology, and the brain. He has published more than 250 articles and 12 books or edited volumes on these topics. His influential work has appeared in premier journals such as PNAS, Science Advances, Nature Human Behaviour, and Nature Computational Science.