Lee is a Research Professor at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. He received his Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1987 following undergraduate and graduate work at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of Washington. His research interests include biogeochemical cycling in high-latitude ecosystems through the use of isotopic and elemental tracers.  Applications of this work include understanding how arctic marine ecosystems are responding to climate change. Lee has extensive polar shipboard research experience on all three current U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers, including service as chief scientist coordinating several multidisciplinary research programs. He also served as a member of a National Academy of Sciences study committee on designing an Arctic Observing Network that has improved capabilities for detecting climate change in the Arctic. Lee has also been active in working to improve collaborative bi-national research in the Russian Arctic through participation as the U.S. representative in an International Arctic Science Committee specialist group that exchanges information with other arctic countries on multinational research activities in the Russian Arctic. He has been the lead or co-author of approximately 100 peer-reviewed publications including high-impact journals such as Science, Nature, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Ecology, Marine Ecology Progress Series and Geophysical Research Letters.  (MARCH 2014). KCAW INTERVIEW