Xie Li, born in March 1939 in Shanghai, is currently a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Civil Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology. He is also the honorary director and researcher at the Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration, specializing in research on earthquake engineering and safety engineering. He was one of the first academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and served as a member of the Fourth and Fifth Presidium of the Chinese Academy of Engineering from 2006 to 2014. He was also the Chairman of the China Earthquake Engineering Association and has held positions such as President of the China Disaster Prevention Association, Vice President of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering, Chairman of the International Association of Strong Earthquakes, and Executive Chairman of the International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior. He was jointly recommended by the three major international scientific and technological organizations (ICSU, IAT, and WFE) to serve as a member of the United Nations Scientific and Technical Committee, composed of 25 top experts worldwide, and as an expert in the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. In 2008, he was selected by the International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE) as an honorary director with the highest and lifelong honor. He is also the only Chinese scholar to have been selected as an honorary director by this international academic organization to date.