Patrick Lee

Dr. Patrick C. Lee received his B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia, and then obtained his M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto in 2001 and 2006, respectively. Then he pursued Postdoctoral study in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota, where Dr. Lee was a Research Associate of Prof. Chris Macosko.

Dr. Lee began his professional career at The Dow Chemical Company in 2008. He was a Research Scientist and Project Leader in Dow’s Research and Development organization, leading multiple cross-functional global project teams.

Dr. Lee joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Vermont as an assistant professor in 2014. Since joining UVM, he created his own research platform on the design and manufacture of lightweight and smart composite structures with a focus on foaming fundamentals, multiphase nano-structured foaming, biopolymer/biocomposite foams, thermal insulation foams, oil absorbent foams, and in situ microfibrillar composite foams.

Dr. Lee is a Six Sigma Green Belt Project Leader and has 38 research journal papers (36 published/accepted and 2 submitted), 71 refereed conference papers, 2 book chapters, and 13 filed or issued patent applications in the field of polymer foam processing and characterization, and processing-structure-property relationships of nano-composites. He is the PI or co-PI on domestically and internationally awarded grants from various government agencies and industries.

Among his honors, Dr. Lee received the National Science Foundation Early Faculty Career Development Award (CAREER) in 2018, the PPS Morand Lambla award in 2018, the Hanwha Advanced Materials Non-Tenured Faculty Award in 2017, the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in 2017, 3 “best paper” awards from the Society of Plastics Engineer (2005, 2 in 2011), 1 “best poster” award from the International Polymer Processing Society in 2015.