Professor William Li’s research interests focus on two distinct areas. First, he has developed a strong research interest in the field of paediatric oncology. In particular, he has developed a programme of research in working with children who have cancer. His grants and international publications encompass a number of paediatric oncology studies including the impact of cancer and its treatment on children’s physical and psychological well-being, developing and evaluating psychological interventions for children with cancer and those who survived cancer.

Recently, Professor Li and his research team have conducted several studies on resilience, with the aim of understanding the relationships between resilience, psychological well-being, and quality of life in children with cancer and their parents.

The second research area involves health promotion for people with health risk behaviours, such as tobacco use, harmful alcohol use, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity. Professor Li has also been actively involved in developing and evaluating innovative interventions to help people modify multiple health risk behaviours with the aims of reducing the risk of mortality and mortality from non-communicable diseases.

Professor Li is actively collaborating with local and international renowned scholars to conduct research, teaching, and knowledge exchange. He has published around 150 international peer-reviewed journal articles, a scholarly book and ten book chapters. These publications have been highly cited and referenced worldwide. Additionally, he has obtained research grants totalling over HK$35 million.