2010年在中国农业大学获得生物科学学士学位，2016年在田纳西大学诺克斯维尔分校获得博士学位。在攻读博士学位期间辅修Bredesen中心能源科学与工程专业方向。2016-2019年在华盛顿州立大学生物化学研究所进行博士后研究，2019-2023年先后以博士后及研究科学家身份在华盛顿大学（西雅图）海洋学院开展研究工作。2022-2023年在华盛顿大学完成数据科学 (Data Science) 专业培训。2023年7月到中国科学院植物研究所工作。围绕光合作用的光合膜蛋白、光保护机理和高光效、暗反应碳浓缩机理，以蓝细菌、硅藻、高等植物等不同进化进程的产氧光合生物为对象，开展了系统研究。在Nature Plants, The Plant Cell, Photosynthesis Research, RSC Advances等国际期刊上发表相关论文论著共计18篇。
Li M, Young JN (2023) Temperature sensitivity of carbon concentrating mechanisms in the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Photosynth Res., 156: 205–215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-023-01004-2.
Garcia AK, Kędzior M, Taton A, Li M, Young JN, Kaçar B. (2023) Effects of RuBisCO and CO2 concentration on cyanobacterial growth and carbon isotope fractionation. Geobiology, 21(3): 390-403. https://doi.org/10.1111/gbi.12543
Kędzior M, Garcia AK, Li M, Taton A, Adam ZR, Young JN, Kaçar B. (2022) Resurrected Rubisco suggests uniform carbon isotope signatures over geologic time. Cell Reports, 39 (4), 110726 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110726.
Semchonok DA, Mondal J, Cooper CJ, Schlum K, Li M, Amin M, Sorzano COS, Ramírez- Aportela E, Kastritis P, Boekema EJ, Guskov A, Bruce BD. (2022) Cryo-EM Structure of a Tetrameric Photosystem I from Chroococcidiopsis TS-821, a Thermophilic, Non-heterocyst-forming Cyanobacteria. Plant Communications, 3 (1), 100248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xplc.2021.100248.
Li M, Svoboda V, Davis G, Kramer D, Kunz HH, Kirchhoff H. (2021) Impact of ion fluxes across thylakoid membranes on photosynthetic electron transport and photoprotection. Nature Plants, 7: 979–988. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-00947-5.
Li M#, Mukhopadhyay R#, Svoboda V, Oung HO, Mullendore DL, Kirchhoff H. (2020) Measuring the dynamicity of thylakoid architecture in plant tissue by electron microscopy. Plant Direct, 00:1–14.
Höhner R, Pribil M, Herbstová M, Lopez LS, Kunz HH, Li M, Wood M, Svoboda V, Puthiyaveetil M, Leister D, Kirchhoff H. (2020) Plastocyanin is the long-range electron carrier between photosystem II and photosystem I in plants. PNAS, 117 (26), 15354-15362.
Li M, Calteau A, Semchonok D, Witt T, Nguyen J, Sassoon N, Boekema EJ, Whitelegge J, Gugger M, Bruce BD. (2019) Physiological and Evolutionary Implications of Tetrameric Photosystem I in Cyanobacteria. Nature Plants, 5: 1309–1319.
Brady NG#, Li M#, Ma Y, Gumbart JC, Bruce BD. (2019) Non-detergent isolation of a cyanobacterial photosystem I using styrene maleic acid alternating copolymers. RSC Advances, 9 (54), 31781-31796.
Schneider D, Lopez LS, Li M, Crawford JD, Kirchhoff H, Kunz H. (2019) Fluctuating light experiments and semi-automated plant phenotyping enabled by self-built growth racks and simple upgrades to the IMAGING-PAM. Plant Methods, 15: 156.
Shelaev IV, Mamedov MD, Gostev FE, Aybush AV, Li M, Nguyen J, Bruce BD, Nadtochenko VA. (2018) Comparisons of Electron Transfer Reactions in a Cyanobacterial Tetrameric and Trimeric Photosystem I Complexes. Photochem Photobiol, doi: 10.1111/php.12886.
Koochak H, Puthiyaveetil S, Mullendore D, Li M, Kirchhoff, H. (2018) The structural and functional domains of plant thylakoid membranes. The Plant Journal, https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.14127.
Kirchhoff H, Li M, Puthiyaveetil S. (2017) Sublocalization of Cytochrome b6f Complexes in Photosynthetic Membranes. Trends Plant Sci., 2017 Jul;22(7):574-582.
Semchonok DA, Li M, Bruce BD, Oostergetel GT, Boekema EJ. (2016) Cryo-EM structure of a tetrameric cyanobacterial photosystem I complex reveals novel subunit interactions. BBA -Bioenergetics, 1857(9), 1619-1626.
Li M, Semchonok DA, Boekema EJ, Bruce BD. (2014) Characterization and Evolution of Tetrameric Photosystem I from the Thermophilic Cyanobacterium Chroococcidiopsis sp. TS-821. The Plant Cell, 26(3): 1230–1245.
Baker DR, Manocchi AK, Lamicq ML, Li M, Nguyen K, Sumner JJ, Bruce BD, Lundgren CA. (2014) Comparative Photoactivity and Stability of Isolated Cyanobacterial Monomeric and Trimeric Photosystem I. J. Phys. Chem. B, 118 (10), pp 2703–2711.
Liang Y, Tan ZM, Zhu L, Niu QK, Zhou JJ, Li M, Chen LQ, Zhang XQ, Ye D. (2013) MYB97, MYB101 and MYB120 Function as Male Factors That Control Pollen Tube-Synergid Interaction in Arabidopsis thaliana Fertilization. PLoS Genet., 9(11): e1003933.