Xiaolin Li's major research objective is to design and implement a high resolution numerical method, the front tracking method, for the study of fluid interface instabilities such as the Rayleigh-Taylor instability and the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability. His research has involved collaborations with scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory and the software has been used for research of various scientific problems such as the inertial confinement fusion and the study of fuel injection nozzle.