Prof Dr Heisook Lee

“Compared to Europe, we in the Asia Pacific region have still to advance in our understanding of gender issues in science and how they can differentiate quality of outcomes for women and men. In 2015, we organised the first Gender Summit - Asia Pacific, which took place in Seoul (http://www.gender-summit.com/gs6-about), and have invited GenPORT to speak about the portal. Many speakers from Asia have presented their research at GS-AP, which is little known elsewhere. I hope that GenPORT will help connect research workers around the world to help them share their expertise and experiences.”

Having served as the founding president of the Center for WISET (Women in Science, Engineering and Technology) until Mach 2016, Professor Heisook Lee now focuses on Gendered Innovations research in STEM fields at GISTeR. Professor Lee was a co-organizer of the Gender Summit 6 Asia-Pacific in 2015. Served as the founding director of WISET from 2001 to 2010 and president of the Korea Federation of Women Scientists associations (KOFWST) from 2006 to 2007, Professor Lee has been an advocate of gender equality in STEM. She was a member of Presidential Advisory Council on Science & Technology and National Science &Technology Commission.

She received her BS MSc and PhD degrees in Mathematics from Ewha Womans University, Korea, the University of British Columbia and Queen’s University, Canada, in 1971, 1974 and 1978 respectively. As a Professor of Mathematics at Ewha Womans University in Seoul Korea, Dr Lee was Dean of the College of Natural Sciences, and Dean of Research affairs between 1997 and 2001. She also served as Dean of the Graduate School from 2006 to 2008. Professor Lee served as the founding Editor of Communications of the Korean Mathematical Society from 1986 to 1988 and as Chief Editor of the Journal of the Korean Mathematical Society from 1994 to 1996.