mathematics

Na Li

Na Li is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Na Li rather than just read about it. In short: Na (Lina) Li (Chinese: 黎娜) is a Chinese and American electrical engineer and applied mathematician, the Winokur Family Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University.

Key takeaways

Na Li belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Na Li to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Na Li from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Na (Lina) Li (Chinese: 黎娜) is a Chinese and American electrical engineer and applied mathematician, the Winokur Family Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. Her research involves control theory, especially as applied to power networks and cyber-physical systems.

Education and career Li received a bachelor's degree in mathematics and applied mathematics in 2007 from Zhejiang University, also including studies as a visiting student in mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, and learned about control theory there through work with Jeff S. Shamma. She contintued her studies in control and dynamical systems at the California Institute of Technology, where she completed her Ph.D. in 2013. Her dissertation, Distributed optimization in power networks and general multi-agent systems, was jointly advised by John Doyle and Steven H. Low. After postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she became an assistant professor of electrical engineering and applied mathematics at Harvard in 2014. She was named as Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor in 2018, Gordon McKay Professor in 2020, and Winokur Family Professor in 2023. She has also been associated with two startup companies, Singularity Energy Inc. and Elastro Inc.

Recognition Li was the 2019 recipient of the Donald P. Eckman Award of the American Automatic Control Council. From 2020 to 2023 she was a Pavel J. Nowacki Distinguished Lecturer of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), and she was the 2023 recipient of IFAC's Manfred Thoma Medal. The IEEE Control Systems Society gave her their 2024 Antonio Ruberti Young Researcher Prize, "for fundamental contributions to control, learning, and optimization of cyber-physical systems and application to biomedical and energy systems", and she was named to the 2026 class of IEEE Fellows, "for contributions to control, learning, and optimization and applications to energy and biomedical systems".

References

External links Home page Na Li publications indexed by Google Scholar

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Na Li

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Na Li claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Na Li before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Na Li ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Na Li

In research: Na Li appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Na Li in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Na Li is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American applied mathematicians, American control theorists, American electrical engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Na Li outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Na Li” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Na Li in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Na Li means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Na Li out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Na Li in simple terms?

Why does Na Li matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Na Li?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Na Li.