The Solar Fuels Gordon Conference was held in Ventura, California from January 28th to February 2nd. Focusing on the theme of "Renewable Energy: Solar Fuels", the conference was held in-depth exchanges and discussions on photocatalytic reactions such as hydrogen production by solar energy and CO₂ reduction, as well as reaction engineering and technology. More than 200 delegates from all over the world attended the conference. Six members of the Can Li academician's group attended the conference. At the conference, Can Li was invited to give a keynote speech entitled "Water Oxidation and Overall Water Splitting on Plasmon Photocatalysts."

The Gordon Conference is one of the most famous high-level academic conferences in the world, which has extremely high reputation and wide-ranging influence. The topics of the conference are concentrated, each time, only a few international top scholars of this field are invited to give keynote speeches, most of the other participants are mainly engaged in academic discussions. This series of conferences were started in 1931 by Neil E. Gordon, a professor of chemistry at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, whose topics cover the frontier of the field of natural science. Can Li has been invited four times to do the keynote speech at the Solar Fuels Gordon Conference, once as a discussion moderator. At this conference, after the participants voted, Can Li was elected as a chairman of the Solar Fuels Gordon Conference of 2022.