Michael Lee is a talented engineer with a multidisciplinary background in materials science and biomedical applications. His expertise includes polymer and nanomaterial synthesis, hydrogel formulation, and synthesis, programming, biomedical optics, and spectroscopy. Lee graduated Summa cum laude from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Science and Engineering in Chemical and Biological Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. He continued his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Chemical Engineering, specializing in the synthesis of bionanosensors for real-time steroid hormone monitoring in vivo. His research included the fabrication of nanosensors for cortisol, the stress hormone, which may enhance medical diagnostics and be incorporated into next-generation drug delivery devices.

Lee currently works as a Senior Engineer, Metrology at Illumina, where he develops microfluidic devices for next-generation sequencing (NGS). His role specializes in spectroscopy and dimensional metrology to develop inline manufacturing QCs, ensuring the robust manufacturing and performance of Illumina's devices. In addition to his work at Illumina, Lee has also gained professional experience as an intern at Merck and Cenovus Energy, a Bioengineering Research Student at The University of Tokyo, a research intern at Aseptic Technology Group, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and a REU Student at Hartgerink Laboratory, Rice University. Lee has also held several undergraduate research positions at Princeton University in laboratories such as Prud'homme, Brynildsen, and Panagiotopoulos.