Dr. Li Shen is a mechanical engineer by training (BEng cum laude, 1999, Shanghai). She completed the Master degree (MSc, 2006) in Sustainable Development, track Energy and Resources, at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. 

From 2006 to 2011 she worked at the Copernicus Institute at Utrecht University and obtained her PhD for her thesis “Bio-based and Recycled Polymers for Cleaner Production – an Assessment of Plastics and Fibres”. The full thesis can be downloaded here.

Between 2011 and 2012 she worked as a researcher at LEI (Agricultural Economics Institute), Wageningen University and Research Centre, the Netherlands, before she joined the Utrecht University again as a post-doc.

From 2015, Li became Assistant Professor at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. Li works at the group of Energy & Resources.  Her research focuses on the transition towards a sustainable chemicals, polymers and plastics materials. She is particularly interested in the sustainability assessments of innovative bio-based plastics, plastics recycling technologies, waste managements systmes and nanomaterials.