Dr. Howon Lee received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Seoul National University in 2004 and 2006, respectively, and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011, all in mechanical engineering. He was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT from 2012 to 2013. Then he worked in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Rutgers University – New Brunswick as an Assistant Professor from 2014 to 2020, before joining the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Seoul National University as an Associate Professor in 2021.

His research focuses exploring fundamental science at the intersection of mechanics, materials science, and engineering physics, with particular emphasis on developing innovative additive manufacturing technologies for soft functional materials. With novel materials, designs, and process technologies, the group explores new engineering applications in a broad range of areas including 3D/4D printing, metamaterials, soft robotics, and biomedical devices. He was awarded the Battelle/MIT Postdoctoral Associate Fellowship in 2012, the ASME Haythornthwaite Young Investigator Award in 2016, the World Congress Micro and Nano Manufacturing Best Paper Award in 2018, and Materials Horizons Outstanding Paper Award in 2019.