Each year, the Graduate Student Organization selects a person from the graduate school faculty who has made outstanding contributions to their academic growth and development. The students make their judgment on the basis of teaching skills, tutorial excellence and overall quality of, and enthusiasm for, graduate teaching. The GSO award this year is presented to:

James Lee received a B.A. in Chemistry from Hope College, Holland, Mich. and earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio in 1971. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass. prior to accepting a position as an assistant professor in biochemistry at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Mo.  He left St. Louis in 1990 to come to UTMB as a professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.  Dr. Lee currently holds the Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry and is interim director for the Sealy Center for Structural Biology.

Dr. Lee teaches within the Basic Biomedical Sciences Curriculum and also teaches advanced courses in biophysics, thermodynamics of macromolecular assembly and DNA-protein transactions. Dr. Lee is recognized by the GSO for his expertise in the area of biophysical chemistry, his enthusiasm for teaching that he brings to the classroom and his availability to students outside the classroom. Dr. Lee worked to improve the content of the Basic Biomedical Sciences Curriculum course in biochemistry. Current students acknowledge this course as one of the stronger components of the combined curriculum.  As a leader in his field, Dr. Lee brings cutting edge research developments and methodology to the classroom in order to provide the best training possible for students.  He is committed to improving graduate education and to developing graduate students into successful scientists.

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