Der-Tsai Lee, also known as D. T. Lee, is a Taiwanese

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

, known for his work in computational geometry. For many years he was a professor at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

. He has been a distinguished research fellow of the Institute for Information Science at the

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, ; zh, t=中央研究院) is the national academy of the Taiwan, Republic of China. It is headquartered in Nangang District, Taipei, Nangang, Taipei. Founded in Nanjing, the academy supports research activities in mathemat ...

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

since 1998. From 1998 to 2008, he was director of this institute. He had been the 14th President of

National Chung Hsing University National Chung Hsing University (NCHU; ; lit. National Resurgence University) is a comprehensive research university in South District, Taichung, Taiwan. Currently, NCHU is among the four universities of the Taiwan Comprehensive University Sys ...

from August 1, 2011 to Jul 31, 2015. More than in academia, he had been an advisory committee member of

National Security Council (Taiwan) The National Security Council (NSC; ) is an organ of the Republic of China (Taiwan) directly under the chairmanship of the President to advise on issues related to national security. Members of the NSC also consist of the Vice President, the Pr ...

from 2016 to 2020. Currently, he has been the chairman of

Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan The Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT; ) is a Taiwanese nonprofit organization founded in May 2005. HEEACT applied for ISO certification in July 2008 and received certification on 4 February 2009. Until 2012, ...

since 2020.

Education and career

Lee received a B.S. degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; zh, t=國立臺灣大學, poj=Kok-li̍p Tâi-oân Tāi-ha̍k, p=, s=) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. Founded in 1928 during Taiwan under J ...

in 1971, an M.S. from the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

in 1976, and a Ph.D. from UIUC under the supervision of Franco Preparata in 1978. After holding a faculty position at Northwestern University for 20 years, he moved to the Academia Sinica in 1998. He also holds faculty positions at

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology The National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (abbreviated as NTUST or TaiwanTech) is a public university located in Taipei, Taiwan. TaiwanTech was established in 1974 as the National Taiwan Institute of Technology (), the first and ...

, and

National Chiao Tung University National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) was a public research university in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Established in 1896 as Nanyang Public School by an imperial edict of the Guangxu Emperor, it was one of China's leading universities. After the Chinese ...

. He is a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

and the ACM. He was elected as the

Academician An academician is a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is an honorific title used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life. Accor ...

in 2004. He also won the Humboldt Research Award in 2007 and elected as the member of The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (also known as Third World Academy of Sciences) (TWAS) in 2008. In 2010, he became the Humboldt Ambassador Scientist. He has published near 200 research papers, and an ISI highly cited researcher. He is editor in chief of the ''

International Journal of Computational Geometry and Applications The ''International Journal of Computational Geometry and Applications'' (IJCGA) is a bimonthly journal published since 1991, by World Scientific. It covers the application of computational geometry in design and analysis of algorithms, focusing o ...

''. He was awarded the German-Taiwanese Friendship Medal by Michael Zickerick, the Director General of the

German Institute Taipei The German Institute Taipei (German language, German: Deutsches Institut Taipei); () is the List of diplomatic missions of Germany, overseas representative office of Germany in Taiwan, which promotes the non-diplomatic Germany–Taiwan relations, ...

, in May 2014. In 2022, he was elected as the Distinguished Alumni of

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Der-Tsai Researchers in geometric algorithms National Taiwan University alumni American people of Taiwanese descent Grainger College of Engineering alumni Northwestern University faculty 1997 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Fellows of the IEEE Living people 1949 births Taiwanese computer scientists Members of Academia Sinica Place of birth missing (living people) Presidents of universities and colleges in Taiwan Academic staff of the National Chung Hsing University