Google Names UCLA Engineering Student Ying Li 2026 Ph.D. Fellow
Ying Li, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in electrical and computer engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has been selected as a 2026 Google Ph.D. Fellow.
Li joins a cohort of 148 new Ph.D. fellows across 38 countries announced today. Google.org is providing $13 million to support the early-career scientists who are advancing the “science of AI” for the public good.
Selected in the privacy, safety and security category, Li focuses on making autonomous AI agents more secure and trustworthy. The fellowship will provide $85,000 per year for up to two years, covering tuition and fees, living expenses, conference travel and research equipment. Each fellow is also paired with a Google research mentor for guidance on academic and professional development.
“I am deeply honored to receive the Google Ph.D. Fellowship. My goal is to develop AI agents that can adapt to evolving user expectations while respecting security and privacy boundaries and remaining under meaningful human control,” Li said.
Li conducts her research in the UCLA AI & Security Lab led by her advisor, Yuan Tian, a UCLA Samueli associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, computer science and the Institute for Technology, Law & Policy — a collaboration between UCLA Samueli and UCLA School of Law. The lab studies the security and privacy of AI and computer systems.
Since 2009, the Google Ph.D. Fellowship Program has supported more than 1,100 graduate students worldwide. Over the past 17 years, alumni of the program have gone on to become tenured professors, startup founders, open-source pioneers and leading researchers helping shape the future of technology.
“Every major leap in technology starts with a researcher asking a bold question long before the world sees the answer,” said Leslie Yeh, director of Scientific Progress at Google.org. “The 2026 Google Ph.D. Fellows are asking those questions today. With funding and a global community behind them, exceptional early-career scientists like Ying Li at UCLA have the freedom to pursue ambitious ideas and help build a stronger, more representative scientific landscape for everyone.”