Prof Danielle N Lee, Behavioural Ecologist
Danielle N Lee is a biologist whose research focuses on the connections between ecology, evolution and animal behaviour.
Danielle N Lee is a biologist whose research focuses on the connections between ecology, evolution and animal behaviour. From South Memphis, Tennessee, she earnt her bachelor’s from Tennessee Technological University in 1996, her master’s from the University of Memphis, and her PhD in biology from the University of Missouri-St Louis.
Lee’s research focuses on the extent to which the African giant pouched rat, Cricetomys ansorgei, exhibits behavioural syndromes, and the potential role of genetics in these behaviours. She has worked in Tanzania, collecting data on female rat biology, which is currently understudied. She also studies the behavioural differences between small rodents in urban and rural settings in the St Louis Metropolitan region.
Lee is also well known as a science communicator who specialises in outreach to the African American community and increasing the participation of under-served communities in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). She co-founded the National Science & Technology News Service, a “media literacy initiative to bring more science news to African-American audiences and promote science news source diversity in mainstream media”.
In 2009, she was honoured as a Diversity Scholar by the American Institute of Biological Sciences. In 2013 she was given the STEM Leader Award by the Kansas City Black Family Technology Awareness Association. She was one of EBONY Magazine’s Power 100 in 2014, a 2015 TED Fellow, and a White House Champion of Change in STEM Diversity and Access.
Further Reading
Danielle N. Lee, Wikipedia
Dr Danielle N. Lee, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Danielle N. Lee, Ophir Lab
The Urban Scientist, Danielle N. Lee, Scientific American
Danielle N. Lee: Working Twice as Hard, The Story Collider, 8 December 2013
Danielle N. Lee, National Geographic, 2017
Recode Decode at TED: Biologist Danielle N. Lee wants more “nerdy black and brown kids” in STEM, Eric Johnson, Vox, 29 April 2019
How hip-hop helps us understand science, Danielle N. Lee, Ted Talks, 14 May 2019
Mammalogy (MAMMALS) with Dr. Danielle N. Lee, Alie Ward, Ologies, 14 September 2020