Willimantic, Conn. – Henry Lee, one of the world’s foremost forensic scientists, will visit Eastern Connecticut State University on Feb. 10 for the spring semester’s Arts and Lecture Series. Lee has been a prominent participant in many of the most challenging legal cases of the last 50 years, and has worked with law enforcement agencies from 46 countries in helping solve more than 8,000 cases.
Born in China and raised in Taiwan, Lee began his career working for the Taipei Police Department, attaining the rank of captain by the age of 25. In 1965, Lee and his wife, Margaret, moved to the United States. He earned his bachelor’s degree in forensic science from John Jay College in 1972, and continued his studies in biochemistry at New York University where he earned his master’s degree in 1974 and his Ph.D. in 1975. Since then, Lee has been given 20 honorary doctorate degrees and received special training from the FBI Academy and other organizations.
Lee’s testimony figured prominently in the trials of O.J. Simpson, Jason Williams and Kennedy Smith, as well as in the convictions of the “Wood Chipper” murderer and thousands of other murder cases. Lee has assisted local and state police in their investigations of other famous crimes, such as the murder of Jon Benet Ramsey in Boulder, CO; the 1993 suicide of White House Counsel Vincent Foster; the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart; the death of Chandra Levy; the reinvestigation of the Kennedy assassination; and the Casey Anthony case.
Currently, Lee is the director of Forensic Research and Training Center and distinguished chair professor of forensic science at the University of New Haven. He was the chief emeritus for the Connecticut State Police from 2000 to 2010, the commissioner of Public Safety for the State of Connecticut from 1998 to 2000, and served as Connecticut’s chief criminalist and director of the State Police Forensic Laboratory from 1978 to 2000.
Lee serves as an advisor/consultant for more than 80 law enforcement agencies around the world. In 2013, he was appointed as chief forensic advisor for the New Haven Police Department and expert advisor for China’s National Chief Prosecutor’s Office. Lee and his wife have been married for 50 years and have two grown children and three grandchildren.