Yuan T. Lee
Taiwanese chemist
Yuan Tseh Lee (Chinese: 李遠哲; pinyin: Lǐ Yuǎnzhé; Wade–Giles: Li³ Yüan³-che²; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lí Oán-tiat; born 19 November 1936) is a Taiwanese physical chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986 for his contributions to the development of reaction dynamics.
Lee is a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and honorary director of the Nagoya University Institute for Advanced Study along with Ryoji Noyori. He was awarded the Nobel with John C. Polanyi and Dudley R. Herschbach for "contributions to the dynamics of chemical elementary processes". He was the first Taiwanese person be awarded the Nobel Prize. His research in physical chemistry concerned the use of advanced chemical kinetics techniques to investigate and manipulate the behavior of chemical reactions using crossed molecular beams. From 1994 to 2006, Lee served as the President of the Academia Sinica. In 2011, he was elected head of the International Council for Science.
Early life and education
Lee was born in northern Taiwan in Shinchiku (now Hsinchu) on November 19, 1936. His father, Lee Tze-fan (李澤藩), was an artist, and his mother, Ts'ai P'ei (蔡配; Cài Péi), was an elementary school teacher from Goseikō Town (梧棲港街) in Taichū Prefecture (now Wuqi, Taichung). Their ancestral home is in Nan'an, Fujian.
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