Yuan T. Lee

Yuan Tseh Lee 李遠哲
Official portrait, 2016
Senior Advisor to the President
In office 9 November 2016 – 19 May 2020
President	Tsai Ing-wen
In office 20 May 2000 – 20 May 2001
President	Chen Shui-bian
7th President of the Academia Sinica
In office 18 January 1994 – 18 October 2006
ROC President	Lee Teng-hui Chen Shui-bian
Preceded by	Wu Ta-You
Succeeded by	Chi-Huey Wong
Personal details
Born	(1936-11-19) 19 November 1936 (age 87) Shinchiku City, Shinchiku Prefecture, Japanese Taiwan
Citizenship	Taiwan
Nationality	Empire of Japan (1936–1945) Republic of China (1945–present) United States (1974–1994)
Political party	Independent
Alma mater	National Taiwan University National Tsing Hua University University of California, Berkeley
Awards	Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1986) National Medal of Science (1986) Peter Debye Award (1986) Faraday Lectureship Prize (1992) Othmer Gold Medal (2008)
Scientific career
Fields	Chemistry
Institutions	University of California, Berkeley University of Chicago Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Academia Sinica (Taiwan)
Thesis	Photoionization of alkali-metal vapors  (1965)
Doctoral advisor	Bruce H. Mahan
Doctoral students	Laurie Butler

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 chemist. He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.^[1][2][3][4] He was the first Taiwanese Nobel Prize laureate who, along with the Hungarian-Canadian John C. Polanyi and American Dudley R. Herschbach, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986 "for their contributions to the dynamics of chemical elementary processes".^[3][5]

Lee's particular physical chemistry work was related to the use of advanced chemical kinetics techniques to investigate and manipulate the behavior of chemical reactions using crossed molecular beams.^[3][5] From 15 January 1994 to 19 October 2006, Lee served as the President of the Academia Sinica of Taiwan.^[4] In 2011, he was elected head of the International Council for Science.^[4]