Nana (Hyung-Ran) Lee
Assistant professor, teaching stream
PhD, University of Toronto, 2001
Visiting PhD Scholar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998-1999
Postdoc, University of Michigan, 2000-2002
Address | Room 5233 Medical Sciences Building 1 King's College Circle Toronto, ON M5S 1A8 |
Office Phone | 416-978-8565 |
nana.lee@utoronto.ca |
Dr. Nana Lee holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Toronto, a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Michigan and was a Visiting Scholar at Whitehead (Broad) Institute for Biomedical Research, MIT with the world’s leading group of the International Human Genome Project. Her roles in the biotechnology industry include Senior Research Scientist for Ellipsis Biotherapeutics, Toronto and Senior Research Scientist, Product Manager and Director of Application Science for DNA Software, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
She currently holds the position of Director and Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream of GPD for both Departments of Biochemistry and Immunology. She is also the Director of Mentorship and GPD for Graduate Life & Science Education (GLSE), Faculty of Medicine. Her most recent initiative is spearheading the GLSE PhD Leaders Program. She has presented to over 2500 audience members from high school, undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and professionals throughout the USA, Canada and Asia.
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Research Description
Dr. Nana Lee brings her valuable expertise as an industry scientist and mother of three back into academia as she is currently pioneering the addition of professional development in biomedical graduate education.
Along with Dr. Reinhart Reithmeier, she developed and implemented the innovative Graduate Professional Development (GPD) course in the fall of 2012 for the Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto which was published in Science Careers. She directed the organization of the first Biomedical Career Workshop in 2013 sponsored by ASBMB, CSMB, Biochemistry, Immunology, U of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine, and the Banting Research Foundation.
Some of her invited speaking engagements about professional development include:
2020
Sept 2020 “The Power of Community: Design-thinking our Way to Novel Solutions” Proposal for Presentation Accepted, American Association of Medical Colleges, Graduate Research Education and Training Group Conference, Chicago, USA – planning on hold
Aug 2020 Keynote, Canadian Student Health Research Forum, National CIHR Professional Development Symposium, Virtual Format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJfuGsr_px8&feature=youtu.be (video availabe until end of July, 2021)
July 2020 “Essentials of Professional Development” Korean Canadian Scientists Group, Toronto
June 2020 Assessing the impact of curricular graduate professional development using complementary quantitative and qualitative measures, Graduate Career Consortium, Virtual North American Conference, Co-Presenters: Helen Miliotis, Rebecca Laposa, Yoojin Choi, Reinhart Reithmeier (n=48 attendees)
April 2020 GPD Day, Departments of Biochemistry, Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Western Ontario with Science to Business London Chapter, Virtual Discussion
April 2020 Best Practices in Writing the Resume” Women in STEM, Toronto Chapter
Feb 2020 Career Panelist, Global Beyond Science Initiative International Virtual Conference
Feb 2020 Day Two: Next Steps, Graduate Life Sciences and Education (GLSE), University of Toronto
Jan 2020 Best Practices in Applying to Graduate Schools, Summer Research and Jobs, Graduate Life Sciences and Education (GLSE), University of Toronto
Jan 2020 Success in and after Graduate School, GPD Day, U of Toronto Scarborough
2019
“Future Skills and Talent Development: Program Implementation Panel Session“ Canadian Science Policy Conference, Ottawa, Canada. Facilitator Lead for Panel Workshop with Dr. Bruce Seet (S2BN), Dr. Peter Severinson (Mitacs), Dr. Vivian Nguyen (Carleton) for approximately 30 policy analysts, faculty, students and industry professionals resulting in positive feedback such as “this is the best facilitated discussion I have attended”
“Success In and After Graduate School” University of Ottawa, Department of Biochemistry
“Success In and After Graduate School” Carleton University, Department of Biochemistry
“Career Transitions” IMS Panel, U of Toronto with Dr. Zayna Khayat, Dr. Wilfrid de Vegas
“Success In and After Graduate School: Reflection, Meaningful Engagement, StrategicCommunications” U of Calgary
“Design Thinking Applied: Generative, Team-Learning in Graduate Professional Development” Co-presented with Dr. Allan Kaplan and Lead Facilitator for Workshop on Ideation Brainstorming American Association of Medical Colleges, GREAT (Graduate Research Education and Training)National Conference, Seattle, Washington
“GPD: Reflection, Meaningful Engagement, Strategic Communications, Next Steps” Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry, U of Toronto
“GPD: A Seven Year Review and Looking Forward” at Biochemistry Retreat
“Intro to GPD” at Speech Language Pathology Grad Student Orientation
“Graduate Professional Development: Toward Becoming an International Scientist”RIKEN Brain Institute – Tokyo, Japan & Seoul National University, Incheon University, Seoul, South Korea
“Creating Community through Curriculum-Embedded Professional Development Courses”Graduate Career Consortium National Conference, Co-Presenters: Yoojin Cho, R. Reithmeier, New Orleans, Louisiana
”A New Frontier: Strategies and Outcome for Embedding Professional Development within the Graduate Curriculum” Graduate Career Consortium National Conference, Copresenting with Cynthia Fuhrmann (UMass Medical) P. Phelps (Johns Hopkins) New Orleans, Louisiana
“Success After Graduate School” University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
“The Informational Interview The Lung Association RENASCENT / CIHR-ICRH Workshop In partnership with the Canadian Respiratory Research Network and Canadian Thoracic Society, Ottawa
“Creating Your Professional Network” IMS GPD Course Guest Speaker, Toronto “Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Canada” Invited Moderator for Science to Business Network Event with Drs. Christine Allen, Zayna Khayat and Cynthia Goh “Fireside chat with Dr. Nana Lee – Creating your Career Path” Sunnybrook Hospital, Sunnybrook Peer Network Inaugural Seminar, Toronto
2018
“Is the Life Sciences PhD on Life Support or Alive and Well?” Association of American Medical Colleges GREAT (Group on Graduate Research, Education and Training) Conference, Atlanta
“Creating Your Career Path with Your Grad Degree” Canadian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences Annual Symposium, Toronto
“Using the Three Minute Thesis for Interviews, Outreach and Networking” American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Annual Meeting, San Diego, California
“The Best Resume and Cover Letter” Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute, Toronto
“Success After Graduate School” Biomedical Engineering Students Association Career Day, Toronto
“The Academic CV” Cancer Education Scholars Program, Toronto General Hospital
“Best Practices Learned over 5 Years in Biochemistry’s GPD Course” University of Calgary, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Calgary
2017
“Training the Trainers” Graduate Career Consortium, Boston University
Fireside Chat about Careers after Grad School, Infectious Disease Consortium, Harvard University
Parents with PhDs, School of Graduate Studies, U Toronto
“Ask the Expert” Nature Jobs Life in the Phd Lane Podcast
“Success After Graduate School” University of Guelph, OVC “Impact in Science” LMP High School Mentorship Program
“Genes, Genomes and You: Impact of NextGen Sequencing” U of Toronto Summer Youth Meds
“Engaging Industry and Academia in GPD”, Graduate Career Consortium, Houston
Trainee GPD Seminar, Canadian Society of Molecular Biology, Ottawa
Trainee GPD Seminar, McGill University
Trainee Breakfast Plenary, Canadian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Montreal
Selected: GPD in Faculty Development, Teaching and Learning Symposium, U of Toronto
Trainee GPD Seminar, Industry Link, McMaster University
Trainee Special Workshop, Canadian Society of Immunology, Banff, Alberta
Keynote for Lead Together Conference, U of Toronto
Graduate Professional Development, Department of Astronomy, U of Toronto
2015-2016
Trainee Workshop, Baycrest Brain Health Complex
Sick Kids PDF and PhD Trainee Career Development Workshop
Career Readiness, AllerGen Conference NCE
“Importance of Mentorship”, IMS Career Panel Sick Kids
“Professional Communications in the WorkPlace” Immunology Retreat
Guest Panelist for Graduate Professional Skills Program
U of Manitoba Graduate Career Development, BReaTH
Trainee Workshop, Canadian Society for Immunology
“Success after Graduate School” Biochemistry, U of Ottawa
“GPD at U of Toronto” Universities Canada, Ottawa
“Integrated GPD in Graduate Curriculum” Conference Board of Canada Conference, Edmonton
Panelist “Integrating Children with a Scientific Career after the PhD” GPS Workshop
“Train the Trainers” Workshop on GPD, Faculty of Medicine, U of Toronto
“GPD at Biochemistry” Western University, Schulich School of Medicine, Basic Science Chairs Train the Trainers Workshop
“Success After Graduate School: Strategic Communications” CSI Conference, Ottawa
“Networking 201: How Will They Remember You?” LSCDS Workshop, U of Toronto
Communications Workshop for Trainees, CHVI R&D AVO Trainee Conference, Toronto
2013-2014
U of Toronto’s Department of Molecular Genetics
Canadian Science Policy Conference
University of Guelph’s Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
York University’s NSERC IACPES PD Event for Science and Engineering Students
York University’s 2014 Graduate Professional Skills Launch
School of Graduate Studies, Opening Doors Symposium, U of Toronto
Courses Taught
BCH2024 Planning Your Scientific Journey Planning your Scientific Journey
BCH 2024H Design Thinking for Scientists
BCH479H Advanced Seminar in Biochemistry
BCH 2024H Professional Development Course
BCH2024H Professional Development
Extra-Departmental Courses
IMM2200H (Immunology) Graduate Professional Development 2.0
BCH2024H (Biochemistry) Introduction to Graduate School
BCH2024H (Biochemistry) Design Thinking for Scientists
BCH479H (Biochemistry) Advanced Seminar in Biochemistry
Publications
Success After Graduate School
Nana Lee and Reinhart Reithmeier
Second edition in 2021! Read
Training the Next Generation of Scientists Right Now: Challenges and Suggestions
Chloe Mitchell, Ashton Trotman-Grant, Nana Lee
Canadian Science Policy Conference Editorial 2020, Nov 11, 2020 Read
Everyday Tips for Equity-Minded Scholars
Nana Lee
Inside Higher Education, Carpe Careers October 19, 2020 Read
Making professional connections in a virtual world
Nana Lee
University Affairs, Career Advice Feature Aug 24, 2020 Read