Raphael C. Lee
Surgeon and biomedical engineer Raphael Lee is the Paul and Allene Russell Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. His professional research interests have focused on the molecular biophysics of trauma tissue injury (including radiation injury), design and use of synthetic molecular chaperones to augment cell healing processes, pharmaceutical control of scar formation, and reconstructive surgery. He is co-founder of the first multidisciplinary clinical research program to advance the rehabilitation of electrical shock survivors (Chicago Electrical Trauma Research Institute).
His education includes general surgery residency at the University of Chicago and plastic surgery residency at the Harvard University-Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Lee also completed a M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering (Drexel University) and a ScD degree in Electrical Engineering thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He subsequently served on the faculty of Harvard University, M.I.T. and the University of Chicago.
Dr. Lee’s research has resulted in new therapeutics that has led to the establishment of three biotechnology companies. He has chaired the University of Chicago President’s Advisory Committee on Technology Transfer and Commercialization. He is now promoting national policies to locate startup companies resulting from federally funded research in communities in need of sustained economic development.
Regarding international efforts, Dr. Lee received the ‘Key to the City” of Shanghai award for facilitating the development of a national center for the treatment of electrical injuries. He also directed a World Health Organization Radiation Program sub-committee to investigate the health economic impact of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on the country of Belarus. Dr. Lee has supported clinical service development in several countries including Madagascar, China and Zimbabwe. now serves on the American College of Surgeon’s Operation Giving Back Committee in support of its program to augment surgical training in developing nations.
Regularly listed as a “Top Surgeons” by US News and several American agencies Dr. Lee has received more than 30 professional awards including being named an American College of Surgeons Schering Scholar (1978), MacArthur Prize Fellow (1981), a Searle Scholar (1985), and a Bucksbaum Institute Senior Clinical Scholar. He is a Fellow of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons (AAPS), Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Biomedical Engineering Society, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), American Surgical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (USA), the Institute of Medicine of Chicago, the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE). Notable awards include: the James Barrett Brown Award (AAPS) for "advancing knowledge in the field of Plastic Surgery"; The American Electrical Power Association Award for “Advancing Electrical Safety and Health"; and AIMBE’s Pierre Galletti Award for advancing the field of biomedical engineering.