PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Houqiang Li

Also known as 李厚强, Li Houqiang

Houqiang Li is a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) whose research spans video coding, computer vision, reinforcement learning and deep learning. He earned his B.S., M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering at USTC, finishing the doctorate in 2000, and became a professor there in 2007. The honors he received include the 2015 National Natural Science Award and the 2019 National Technological Invention Award of China, both second class, and election as an IEEE Fellow in 2021. His coauthored work includes the Uformer image-restoration Transformer in 2021, the DIRE detector for diffusion-generated images in 2023 and the Generative Latent Coding compression models in 2025. Since 2021, he is Vice Dean of USTC's School of Information Science and Technology and Director of the MOE-Microsoft Key Laboratory of Multimedia Computing and Communication.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 1992–2007

    From USTC student to professor

    He earns B.S., M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering at USTC in 1992, 1997 and 2000. He works there as a postdoctoral researcher from 2000 and becomes a professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering and Information Science in 2007.

  2. 2013–2017

    Three national talent honors

    He wins the NSFC Distinguished Young Scientists fund in 2013, becomes a Leading Scientist of the Ten Thousand Talent Program in 2016, and a Distinguished Professor of the Changjiang Scholars Program in 2017.

  3. 2015–2019

    Two national second-class prizes

    He receives the 2015 National Natural Science Award of China (second class) for work on non-uniform image computing, and the 2019 National Technological Invention Award (second class) for key technologies of mobile high-definition video coding adaptation. Forty-five of his technical proposals are accepted into international video coding standards.

  4. 2019–2023

    NSFC key project on machine games

    From 2019 to 2023, he leads a key project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) on machine-game algorithms and applications in complex environments. His research areas include multiagent reinforcement learning and computer games based on reinforcement learning.

  5. 2021

    IEEE Fellow and ICME chair

    He joins the IEEE Fellow class of 2021, cited for contributions to video coding and multimedia content analysis. He is also one of four General Chairs of the 2021 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME).

  6. 2021–2025

    Uformer, DIRE and Generative Latent Coding

    In 2021, he coauthors Uformer, a U-shaped Transformer for image restoration, with Zhendong Wang, Xiaodong Cun, Jianmin Bao, Wengang Zhou and Jianzhuang Liu. In 2023, he coauthors DIRE, a detector for diffusion-generated images. In 2025, he coauthors Generative Latent Coding, a scheme for ultra-low bitrate image and video compression.

  7. Since 2021

    Vice Dean at USTC

    He is a professor at USTC, Vice Dean of its School of Information Science and Technology, and Director of the MOE-Microsoft Key Laboratory of Multimedia Computing and Communication. His research covers image and video coding, image and video analysis, computer vision, deep learning and reinforcement learning.

Career

  1. Since 2000University of Science and Technology of ChinaPostdoctoral researcher, Professor

Education

  1. 2000University of Science and Technology of ChinaPh.D.
  2. 1997University of Science and Technology of ChinaM.Eng.
  3. 1992University of Science and Technology of ChinaB.S.

From the biography.

  1. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorateIncludes University of Science and Technology of China. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorate. Across 2,116 people with both an undergraduate degree and a doctorate recorded, we trace which undergraduate schools feed which doctoral programs, how often students stay at the same school, and how paths differ by birth-country region.
  2. 44% of AI career moves go from one university to anotherIncludes University of Science and Technology of China. We estimate how 26,439 AI career moves link universities, companies, labs, nonprofits and government research centers, with decade counts, net flows and the top paths.
  3. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes University of Science and Technology of China. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  4. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Science and Technology of China. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Houqiang Li yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Home - Houqiang Li's Homepage staff.ustc.edu.cn. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. 李厚强 eeis.ustc.edu.cn. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. 李厚强 tech.zte.com.cn. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. 41 SPS Members Elevated to Fellow signalprocessingsociety.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. The 22nd IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME 2021) sn.committees.comsoc.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Uformer: A General U-Shaped Transformer for Image Restoration arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. DIRE for Diffusion-Generated Image Detection arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Generative Latent Coding for Ultra-Low Bitrate Image and Video Compression arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Houqiang Li | alphaXiv alphaxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.