Chemist Yuan Tseh Lee (born 1936) shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with two colleagues for the part he played in the development of chemical-reaction dynamics. Their work opened important new fields of chemistry. Remarkably, Lee developed many of the laboratory tools he employed in his research, receiving a number of patents over the years. A great educator as well as innovator, Lee would later return to his homeland to head Taiwan's top academic and research institution.

Yuan Tseh Lee was born on November 29, 1936, in Hsinchu, Taiwan. His father was a respected artist and his mother taught school. World War II had a great impact on his early life. When Lee started his elementary education, Taiwan was under Japanese occupation. His early schooling was interrupted by the war, as the Taiwanese had to move into the nearby mountains to escape the frequent bombings of the Allied Army. After the...