Yunyao Li leads the Open Domain Knowledge team at Apple Knowledge Platform. Until early 2022, she was a Distinguished Research Staff Member and Senior Research Manager at IBM Research – Almaden where she built and managed the Scalable Knowledge Intelligence department. She is particularly known for her work in scalable NLP, enterprise search, and database usability.

She has built systems, developed solutions, and delivered core technologies to over 20 IBM products under brands such as Watson, InfoSphere, and Cognos. She has published over 80 articles and a book. She was an IBM Master Inventor, with over 50 patents filed/granted.

Her technical contributions have been recognized by prestigious awards within and outside of IBM on a regular basis. She is an ACM Distinguished Member. She was a member of the inaugural New Voices program of the American National Academies (1 out of 18 selected nationwide) and represented US young scientists at World Laureates Forum Young Scientists Forum in 2019 (1 of 4 selected nationwide).

Yunyao obtained her Ph.D degree in Computer Science & Engineering and dual-degrees of M.S.E in Computer Science & Engineering and M.S in Information from the University of Michigan. She went to college at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and graduated with dual-degrees of B.E in Automation and B.S in Economics.