Lee received his B.S. from MIT in Materials Science and Engineering in 1981. He then worked for a two years doing process development for optical waveguide materials for telecommunication at Corning. Lee then went back to MIT, and graduated with a Ph.D. in Ceramic Science and Engineering in 1987. Following graduate school, Lee started work for DuPont, where he has been for the last 23 years. At DuPont, he has worked on materials intended for uses in structural, electronic, optical and sensing applications, and more. Lee is currently Research Manager for Nanocomposite Technologies in DuPont's Central Research and Development Laboratory in Wilmington, Delaware.