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Danielle N. Lee

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Danielle N. Lee
NationalityAmerican
Education
Known forThe Urban Scientist (blog)
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
ThesisIndividuals Differences in Exploratory Behavior of Prairie Voles, Microtus ochrogaster (2010)
Doctoral advisorZuleyma Tang-Martínez
Other academic advisorsAlexander G. Ophir
Websiteabout.me/DNLee

Danielle N. Lee is an American assistant professor of biology at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville,[1] best known for her science blogging and outreach efforts focused on increasing minority participation in STEM fields. Her research interests focus on the connections between ecology and evolution and its contribution to animal behavior. In 2017, Lee was selected as a National Geographic Emerging Explorer.[2] With this position Lee traveled to Tanzania to research the behavior and biology of landmine-sniffing African giant pouched rats.[3]

Early life and education

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Danielle N. Lee was born originally from South Memphis, Tennessee and she earned her bachelor's degree from Tennessee Technological University in 1996. While she intended to go into veterinary medicine, after being rejected from veterinary school four times, she began studying olfactory behavior in meadow voles and found her passion to pursue academic research.[4] In 2000, Lee earned her MS from the University of Memphis, and in 2010 Lee graduated from the University of Missouri–St. Louis with a Ph.D. in Biology.[1] In her thesis, Lee proposed a new system of describing animal personality traits from more subjective, emotional descriptors, to observational adjectives.[5]

Research and career

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As of 2017, Lee teaches mammalogy and urban ecology at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.[1] Her research specializes in rodent behavior in both urban and rural settings. Her current focus of study is the African giant pouched rat, examining the extent to which they exhibit behavioral syndromes and the potential role of genetics in these behavioral differences.[6][7] Lee has expanded her research to examine behavioral differences of small rodents across urban gradients in the St. Louis Metropolitan region.[1] In 2012, Lee traveled to and lived in Tanzania to collect data about the African giant pouched rat for the "Wild Life of Our Homes" project. Centering on female rat biology, Lee aims to increase research about female biology that has been understudied in the animal kingdom.

Advocacy and public service

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From 2006 to 2011, Lee published the blog Urban Science Adventures![8] before joining the Scientific American Blog Network, where she wrote The Urban Scientist blog from 2011 to 2016.[9] Through her posts, Lee covered her experience as a research scientist, issues relating to STEM diversity, and urban ecology (what she calls "science you can see in your backyard").[5] Her blog aimed to connect the scientific community with under-served and underrepresented populations, primarily African-American youth, through scientific explanations that were easily understandable.[10]

Lee's outreach efforts focus on sharing science with the general public[11] and the under-served,[12] particularly through outdoor experiences and social media outlets.[13] Lee founded the National Science and Technology News Service,[14] a now-defunct media advocacy group focused on increasing interest in STEM and science news coverage within the African-American community. She has received many honors for her efforts to increase minority participation in STEM fields, and was named a top TED fellow 2015.[15] Lee also avidly uses Twitter as a platform to share her science and outreach, and has been recognized as a top scientist to follow on Twitter.[16]

For the show and podcast the Story Collider Lee explained that she has had to work 'twice as hard' as a woman of color in science;[17] in 2013, Lee was invited to contribute to the science website Biology Online by a pseudonymous editor named "Ofek". When Lee declined to contribute to the website without compensation, Ofek allegedly responded by asking whether Lee was "an urban scientist or an urban whore".[18] Lee rebuked Ofek on The Urban Scientist; however, the editor-in-chief of Scientific American, Mariette DiChristina, quickly removed Lee's response from the network. Although the removal of the blog post was allegedly due to legal concerns, Scientific American was widely seen as censoring Lee, causing outrage.[19][20][21][22] Ultimately, Ofek was fired by Biology Online because of the incident.[23]

In June 2020, Lee was a contributor to the #ShutDownSTEM and #ShutDownAcademia initiative, organized around the Black Lives Matter protests and demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd.[24] The group called for STEM and other academic departments across the United States to hold all daily activities, including teaching, research work, and service responsibilities, on June 10, 2020, in order to reflect on how racism and privilege may affect those in their academic spaces; participate in local protests, and; learn about the history of anti-Black violence and racism.[25]

Selected awards and honors

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Selected works and publications

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Scholia has a profile for Danielle N. Lee (Q24049147).
  • M. H. Ferkin; D. N. Lee; S. T. Leonard (April 21, 2004). "The Reproductive State of Female Voles Affects their Scent Marking Behavior and the Responses of Male Conspecifics to Such Marks". Ethology. 110:257-272. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.2004.00961.x

Personal life

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Lee is related to the Memphis-based civil rights activists The Lee Sisters.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Dr. Danielle Lee". www.siue.edu. Archived from the original on 2022-08-02. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  2. ^ Society, National Geographic. "Learn more about Danielle N. Lee". www.nationalgeographic.org. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  3. ^ "More about Dr. Danielle Lee". You're the Expert. 5 April 2018. Retrieved 2019-03-01.
  4. ^ "National Geographic Emerging Explorer Danielle N. Lee Finding Natural Wonders Hidden in the City – National Geographic Blog". blog.nationalgeographic.org. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
  5. ^ a b Pandika, Melissa (21 April 2014). "Danielle Lee, Urban Scientist + Hip Hop Maven". OZY. Archived from the original on 2016-04-27. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
  6. ^ Heller, Amanda R.; Ledbetter, Eric C.; Singh, Bhupinder; Lee, Danielle N.; Ophir, Alexander G. (2018). "Ophthalmic examination findings and intraocular pressures in wild-caught African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys spp.)". Veterinary Ophthalmology. 21 (5): 471–476. doi:10.1111/vop.12534. ISSN 1463-5224. PMID 29251400. S2CID 7141299.
  7. ^ Cullin, Cassandra O.; Sellers, Matthew S.; Rogers, Erin R.; Scott, Kathleen E.; Lee, Danielle N.; Ophir, Alexander G.; Jackson, Todd A. (October 2017). "Intestinal Parasites and Anthelmintic Treatments in a Laboratory Colony of Wild-caught African Pouched Rats (Cricetomys ansorgei)". Comparative Medicine. 67 (5): 420–429. PMC 5621570. PMID 28935004. Retrieved 2019-03-01.
  8. ^ "Urban Science Adventures! ©". urban-science.blogspot.com.
  9. ^ "The Urban Scientist".
  10. ^ DNLee. "Welcome to The Urban Scientist!". Scientific American Blog Network. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
  11. ^ Powell, Susana Martinez-Conde,Stephen L. Macknik,Devin (October 2016). "How Scientists Can Engage the Public without Risking Their Careers". Scientific American. Retrieved 2019-03-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ "Youth and lawmakers aim for solutions to growing unemployment crisis | THE GATE Newspaper". Retrieved 2019-03-01.
  13. ^ Baker, Monya (2015-02-12). "Social media: A network boost". Nature. 518 (7538): 263–265. doi:10.1038/nj7538-263a. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 25679032.
  14. ^ "National Science & Technology News Service". National Science & Technology News Service.
  15. ^ Rowan, David (2015-05-26). "21 inspiring TED Fellows changing the world in 2015". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved 2019-03-01.
  16. ^ "Scientists On Twitter: 30 Biologists And Chemists To Follow". 26 June 2012.
  17. ^ "Danielle N. Lee: Working twice as hard". The Story Collider. 8 December 2013. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  18. ^ "Biology-Online Fires Editor Who Called Scientist 'Urban Whore'". ABC News. 14 October 2013.
  19. ^ Hess, Amanda (October 14, 2013). "Scientific American's Troubling Response to Its Blogger Being Called an "Urban Whore"". Slate.
  20. ^ "'Scientific American' draws heat over 'urban whore' blog post". Fox News. October 14, 2013.
  21. ^ Jaschik, Scott (October 14, 2013). "When Does a Scientist Get Called a Whore?". Inside Higher Ed.
  22. ^ Beusman, Callie (October 13, 2013). "SciAm Apologizes for Deleting Blogger's Post on Being Called a 'Whore'". Jezebel.
  23. ^ Curry, Colleen (October 14, 2013). "Biology-Online Fires Editor Who Called Scientist 'Urban Whore'". ABC News. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  24. ^ "#ShutDownSTEM: About". Archived from the original on 2020-06-05.
  25. ^ "Take Action". #ShutDownAcademia #ShutDownSTEM. Archived from the original on 2020-11-20. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  26. ^ "White House Champions of Change – STEM Access & Diversity".
  27. ^ Shell, Lea (2014-02-26). "Before They Were Scientists: Danielle N. Lee". Your Wild Life. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
  28. ^ TED Archive (2016-12-20), Finding landmines using pouched rats | Danielle Lee, retrieved 2019-03-01
  29. ^ "Plenary Lectures". British Ecological Society. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
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