He headed and completed more than 50 major cultural relics protection engineering programs including the murals protection and repair programs of three major temples in Tibet and the ancient city of Jiaohe emergency reinforcement engineering program, and published more than 200 articles in Science (Japanese edition), Science China and other domestic and foreign academic journals.

Li published 11 monographs including Protection of Ancient Sites on Silk Road and Protection of Grotto Murals and Painted Sculpture on Silk Road and owned 30-plus licensed technical patents. Li won two second prizes of National Science & Technology Progress Award, one fourth prize of State Technological Invention Award and 10-plus awards at provincial and ministerial levels.

Li also acted as part-time professor and doctoral supervisor in multiple universities and colleges and tutored more than 20 doctoral students and postgraduates. His research programs and engineering practices contributed to the cultivation of a group of leading talent in Chinese cultural relics protection areas and helped build first-class protection teams nationwide. He attained outstanding achievements in geotechnical cultural relics protection and made great contributions to China's cultural relics protection. A large number of innovations he produced remain vital for guidance and reference for international peers.