Dr Lee obtained a Japanese Government scholarship to pursue his Ph.D in Hokkaido, Japan. Upon graduation, he continued his research in marine microbial ecology in Malaysia. Throughout his service at University of Malaya, he was awarded fellowships as visiting lecturer to the Faculty of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Hokkaido University and to the Research Center for Environmental Change, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.

Dr Lee is interested in marine microbial ecology, studying the abundance and diversity of microorganisms, ecological drivers for microbial dynamics, microbial process rates, and the interaction of microorganisms in the sea. Knowledge from these observations and measurements are applied to our understanding of the microbial food web and carbon fluxes. This in turn, can help us better understand how the marine environment responds to environmental changes especially eutrophication and climate change.