Lab Manager

Kejian Li

(she/her/hers)

Kejian Li is a highly-organized and detail-oriented lab manager in the Lab of Dr. Robert Oakes with more than 20 years’ combined management, research and manufacturing experience. She also serves as the lab manager in the Lab of Dr. Emily Day at the University of Delaware. Her main responsibilities include supervising and mentoring students, managing purchasing, maintaining equipment, serving as safety officer and conducting research.

Kejian earned a BS in Biochemistry from Fudan University in Shanghai, China and a MS in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Prior to joining the Day and Oakes Lab, Kejian worked at Siemens Healthineers with focus in the conjugation and purification of proteins and small molecules. She worked briefly at Fraunhofer Center for Molecular Biotechnology with focus in the development of vaccines and therapeutics in plants. Prior to that, she worked at Dupont Pioneer HiBred International with focus in the identification of genes enhancing agronomic traits.

Outside the lab, Kejian enjoys baking, crafts, listening to music from the 80s and 90s, and spending time with her three cats.