Forensic Scientist Henry Chang-Yu Lee

Henry Lee How many scientists can claim the simultaneous titles of state police commissioner, chief state fire marshal, chief building inspector, director of the state forensic laboratory, and university professor? Probably a safe answer is only one, Connecticut's Henry Lee. The development of the field of forensic sciences, the application of science in solving legal issues, parallels Lee's career. As a young man, Lee was a police captain in the Taipei Police Department in Taiwan. There,

Written byMyrna Watanabe

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Henry Lee

How many scientists can claim the simultaneous titles of state police commissioner, chief state fire marshal, chief building inspector, director of the state forensic laboratory, and university professor? Probably a safe answer is only one, Connecticut's Henry Lee.

The development of the field of forensic sciences, the application of science in solving legal issues, parallels Lee's career. As a young man, Lee was a police captain in the Taipei Police Department in Taiwan. There, he notes, "Many cases ... we solved by interrogation and confession. Many cases remained unsolved" due to lack of scientific methods.

When Lee moved to the United States in 1965, he enrolled at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, following that with graduate work at New York University (NYU) Medical Center, where he studied under Sylvia Lee-Huang and Nobelist in physiology or medicine Severo Ochoa. Lee completed his Ph.D. in ...

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