Dr Lee Learn-Han is an Associate Professor and Head of the Microbiome and Bioresource Research Strength in Monash. He is also the Director of the prestigious Asia Pacific Microbiome and Biomedical Research Network (AMBeR). He believes that teaching and research allow him to fulfill an essential responsibility as molecular biology and medical microbiology scientist. Dr Lee was ranked among the World Top 2% Scientist in 2021 and 2022 by Stanford University (Elsevier Scopus Database), clearly demonstrating his research impact on the global stage. Furthermore, Dr Lee is certified by the Malaysia Board of Technologist as the prestigious Professional Technologist (Ts) and Graduate Technologist. His leadership and achievements in studying foodborne multidrug-resistant pathogens have led to top international recognition, evidenced by the invitation by the US-FDA as the sole Malaysian Principal Investigator to collaborate on the genetic study of foodborne pathogens from Malaysia since 2017. Collaboration with top US-FDA scientists will contribute to the generation of high-quality research and engagement for Monash and Malaysia.

Dr Lee’s expertise in Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) and foodborne pathogens research is recognized by the US-FDA, evidenced by invitation from US-FDA as an invited speaker for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Food Safety Cooperation Forum (FSCF) Phase 2 workshop for food safety experts and policymakers, entitled “How WGS has revolutionized food safety: from environmental sampling to foodborne disease prevention, response, and mitigation”, 2022 September 14^th and 15^th in the Western Hemisphere / 2022 September 15^th and 16^th in the Eastern Hemisphere (20:00-23:00 Washington, D.C. / 8:00-11:00 Beijing / 10:00-13:00 Canberra). Dr Lee was the sole speaker from Malaysia and Monash, presented the topic entitled “The application of WGS for environmental sampling to better understand the natural variation of foodborne organisms in the environment - Correlation between certain genetic lineages (of E. coli, for instance) and specific products” for this prestigious international APEC event.

Dr Lee’s research leadership was evidenced as the Founder and Principal Investigator for Novel Bacteria and Drug Discovery Research Group (NBDD) since 2016. He also established the new research strength, “Microbiome and Bioresource Research Strength (MBRS)” in Dec 2018. Under his leadership, MBRS has developed high-standard collaborations with reputable institutions to strengthen research inputs and outputs of the school and campus, with an average of ~20 high-quality ISI articles published yearly. He ranks as the highest cited Microbial Taxonomy and Multidrug-Resistant Pathogens expert worldwide (Google Scholar), strongly indicating his research impact globally in these areas.  In honor of Malaysia and Monash, Dr Lee published and named novel bacterial after Malaysia and Monash, namely “Streptomyces malaysiense”, “Monashia flava”, and “Streptomyces monashensis”. He enabled Malaysia and Monash to have their own microbes that showed massive drug discovery potential that could benefit the local and international community, thus generating value for Monash and Malaysia by putting Malaysia and Monash's name on the World Atlas of bacteria.

Dr Lee’s education leadership role was shown by his appointment to the prominent assessment panel (specialist fields) for accreditation of the entire Bachelor Program of Genetics at University Malaya (UM) in Feb 2017. Nomination by UM, Malaysia’s best public university with QS ranking of 70, depicted his education leadership role nationally in Genetics. As an assessment panel, his report was valuable in improving the program, directly contributing to increasing UM graduates' quality to strengthen Malaysia's science and technology development. His expertise is recognized globally with the appointment as an expert external international grant reviewer for Vienna Science and Technology Fund (Austria) in 2021 and the Estonian Research Council (2020 and 2021) in the field of Life Sciences.

In conclusion, Dr Lee’s excellent inputs and outputs in research, education, and engagement have directly contributed to the high standard of tertiary education at Monash University. As a passionate researcher, to date, he has registered 2 patents, published 7 academic books, 17 book chapters, and published 217 articles with cumulative citations of 8854, H-index of 49 and i10-index of 146. In addition, he served as PI or co-PI for 29 grants totaling ~RM3.8 million. Also, he has supervised 11 PhD students to completion and currently supervising 9 PhD students. Thus, directly contributing to excellent education and learning and capital development for Malaysia.

Dr Lee’s core research focuses on studying “bad” microbes (e.g. Salmonella, Vibrios, MRSA) and how they make people sick while suggesting better detection and management options. Also, he discovers novel “good” microbes (e.g. Actinobacteria) for various drug discovery purposes. Recently he is also interested in the area of how the microbiome affects human health. Such as the investigation into the roles of the microbiome in aging, sepsis, cancer, mental health, and autoimmune diseases.

His passion, leadership, and achievements in research and education have been recognized as the best Medical Science researcher in Malaysia in 2018, as the sole recipient of Malaysia’s Research Star Award (MRSA) Winner 2018 – High Impact Paper Medical Science category. Also, he received the award of the Top Research Scientists Malaysia (TRSM) from the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) in 2022. He received the prestigious award of the Fellow of Malaysian Scientific Association and the Fellow of Linnean Society of London (UK) in 2022. He was recognized by the Professional Registers as Chartered Biologist from the Royal Society of Biology, UK, in 2017, recognizing his impactful contribution to the development of Biology globally. In 2020, Dr Lee was awarded the Excellent Contribution Award 2019 (Feb 2020) from the University of Phayao (UP), Thailand, to recognize his significant research and education contribute to the UP and regionally.

In recognition of his research expertise, Dr Lee is serving as Chief Editor (Progress in Microbes and Molecular Biology), Section Editor [Current Gene Therapy (IF: 4.391)], Associate Editor [Scientific Report (IF: 4.379), Frontiers in Microbiology (IF: 5.640), Microorganisms (IF: 4.128)] for various reputable journals. He has reviewed more than 250 manuscripts submitted to 70 different ISI journals [e.g., Medicinal Research Reviews (IF: 12.944), Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety (IF: 12.811), Clinical and Translational Medicine (IF: 11.492), Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition (IF: 11.176), Gut Microbes (IF: 10.245), etc].

Dr Lee highly welcomes collaboration initiatives with researchers globally in the research areas mentioned above.

Keywords: Microbiome, Metagenomic, Actinobacteria, Microbial Systematics, Microbial Taxonomy, Multidrug-Resistant Pathogens, Drug Discovery, Food Safety, Cancers, Medical Microbiology, Microbial Genetics