RESEARCH FEATURE
Dr. Sunggyu “K.B.” Lee
Illustrious Investigator,
Father Figure
The Russ College’s first eminent scholar dotes on students in the lab and classroom Lee and graduate student Amber Tupper.
Tucked away at the end of a shopping center on East State Street, just down from a gym and the Aldi discount grocery, the Sustainable Energy and Advanced Materials (SEAM) Laboratory is well disguised. There is no sign on the marquee, just some discreet lettering on the doors. You’d never know that it’s the site of groundbreaking research in alternate fuels and biodegradable polymers.
Engineering. In 1997, he became chairman and C.W. LaPierre Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
At first glance, the lab’s director, Sunggyu “KB” Lee, is similarly deceptive. Dressed in a golf shirt and khakis, cracking deadpan jokes at his own expense and teasing his graduate students, Lee doesn’t come across as one of the world’s foremost researchers on clean coal technology, syngas conversion, and functional polymers.
That probably was an advantage when OHIO began pursuing Lee for the eminent scholar position. “I all but stalked him, even going to Rolla to try to convince him to come here,” says Dave Bayless, Loehr Professor of Mechanical Engineering and director of the Ohio Coal Research Center. “We were lucky to get our foot in the door. When Dean Irwin told me to go get him, I did all I could to persuade him to come here. It was an amazing coup.”
But that’s exactly what he is. The Russ College’s first eminent scholar, and OHIO’s fourth. Holder of 32 U.S. and 80 international patents. Editor of the Green Chemistry and Chemical Engineering book series. Author of a dozen books, including The Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing, and hundreds of journal articles and conference papers. Principal or co-principal investigator on $23 million in research grants. “I have a dull life,” jokes the Russ-Ohio Research Scholar in Coal Syngas Utilization, before admitting that he’s just very efficient. “If you work at a little higher intensity, you can accomplish a lot,” he says. “It’s a long day. I sleep well.” A native of Seoul, Korea, Lee first came to Ohio to work on a doctorate in chemical engineering at Case Western Reserve University. He taught at the University of Akron for 17 years, rising from assistant to full professor and serving as chair of the Department of Chemical
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But Lee always considered himself an Ohioan. “To me, Ohio has always been my home state even though I was born and raised in Korea,” he says.
Bayless wasn’t unarmed in his pursuit: The University was able to recruit Lee because of a $4.92 million grant in 2008 from the state of Ohio’s Research Scholars Program, which aims to entice eminent scholars to conduct research at Ohio universities. Just two were awarded in the state: one at Ohio University, and one at The Ohio State University. The Russ College had to match the grant — and was able to do so using funds from the recent $124 million bequeathal from alumnus Fritz Russ, B.S.E.E. ’42, HON ’75, and his wife, Dolores. Lee joined the Russ College faculty in September 2010 — bringing seven semi trucks of equipment and 10 of his Missouri graduate students with him. One of them was Amber Tupper, a postdoctoral researcher who specializes in polymers. She had joined Lee’s lab group in Missouri