Mark W. Lee Jr. was born in Glendale, California. While a child, he lived in many locations across North America, including New York, Texada Island (a small island along the coast of British Columbia), and in the mountains of Northern California. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry with highest honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he performed undergraduate research with Bruce Rickborn and Steve Buratto. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles under the direction of Fred Hawthorne. His thesis work concerned the development of boron-rich oligomers for use in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). In 2006, Dr. Lee moved from UCLA to the University of Missouri to found the new International Institute of Nano and Molecular Medicine under the direction of Fred Hawthorne. Between 2006-2012, Dr. Lee was the assistant director of the I2NM2 institute and the acting director between 2008-2009. In 2012, he became an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Missouri where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in general and inorganic chemistry.