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George C. Lee, Ph.D.

SUNY Distinguished Professor

Professor George C. Lee, a faculty member in the Department of Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering, was named SUNY Distinguished Professor on March 20, 2007. “The Distinguished Professorship recognizes and rewards SUNY’s most preeminent faculty, reflecting the SUNY System’s pride in faculty accomplishment by promoting professors to a rank that is unachievable at the campus level,” said SUNY Chancellor John R. Ryan. “I commend each of today’s recipients for this hard earned recognition.” “The talent, dedication and accomplishments of the faculty we honor today serve as models for others to aspire to and well reflect the high quality of the research and teaching available at the State University of New York,” said Board Chairman Thomas F. Egan. “The achievements of these professors serve as an inspiration to us all.”

Professor Lee, Samuel P. Capen Professor of Engineering, joined the University at Buffalo faculty in 1961 and, over the last 45 years, has made immense impact on education and research in engineering, not only at the Buffalo campus but at a national and international scale. During his Buffalo tenure, Professor Lee has been a dedicated and very successful academic administrator, having served as Chair of our Department (1974-77), Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (1978-95), and Director of the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (1992-2003). He took a leave of absence to serve as Head of the Engineering Mechanics Division at the National Science Foundation (1977-78). During his Deanship, he was responsible for elevating the School of Engineering and Applied Science to new levels of excellence in education and research.

Professor Lee also has been an inspiring teacher and a visionary educator. He promoted international education and encouraged cross-disciplinary education programs involving, for example, integration of engineering with social sciences and medicine. Professor Lee has been at the forefront of promoting engineering education for underrepresented persons. His involvement, and often ground breaking initiatives in actively promoting diversity in engineering education, have been based on his deeply held belief that engineering is a noble profession that catalyzes technical innovation, and in the process, serves as the nexus for important societal change. In his capacity as Professor and Dean, he continually widened the door to ensure that engineering education was not only accessible to persons of all origins and backgrounds, but actively promoted. For example, he was a catalyst in the formation of the Buffalo-area Engineering Awareness for Minorities program in which literally thousands of underrepresented high school students in the greater Buffalo area have been exposed to engineering and science. These experiences have led to quantifiable increased enrollments of underrepresented persons in engineering and science programs throughout the country.

For his accomplishments in academic administration and education, Professor Lee has received many awards, including the Superior Accomplishment Award from the National Science Foundation in 1977, Walter P. Cooke Award from the University at Buffalo Alumni Association in 1995, President’s Medal for Distinguished University Service from the University at Buffalo in 1995, University at Buffalo SEAS Dean’s Award for Achievement in 2004, and the University at Buffalo Award for Outstanding Contributions to International Education in 2005.

Professor Lee’s scholarly research has been equally outstanding. His research over the last 45 years spans a wide spectrum of specialty areas, from steel structures to finite element methods in structural engineering, to cold-region engineering, to biomechanics, to earthquake engineering, and to structural protection technologies against man-made as well as natural hazards. In each of these areas, he has distinguished himself as a leader with national and international reputation.