Kai Lee is the program officer of science for the Conservation and Science Program of the

Packard Foundation The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is a private foundation that provides grants to not-for-profit organizations. It was created in 1964 by David Packard (co-founder of HP) and his wife Lucile Salter Packard. Following David Packard's death ...

. Lee's work focuses on science-based environmental issues. Lee is well regarded for his advocacy of

Adaptive Management Adaptive management, also known as adaptive resource management or adaptive environmental assessment and management, is a structured, iterative process of robust decision making in the face of uncertainty, with an aim to reducing uncertainty over ...

Early life

Kai N. Lee grew up in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, the single child of Chofeng Lin, a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

employee, and Hsin Chih Lee, an accountant for businesses in

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

. Growing up, Lee’s parents encouraged him to do well in school.

Education

In 1966, Lee graduated from Columbia with a degree in

Experimental Physics Experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines in the field of physics that are concerned with the observation of physical phenomena and experiments. Methods vary from discipline to discipline, from simple experiments and ...

, and in 1971, he received his Ph.D. in physics from

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

. After finishing his doctorate, he pursued a post-doctoral fellowship at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

. At

, Lee met Dr. Todd Laporte, who became his mentor and introduced him to the environmental movement. Even though Lee’s primary field of research was not based in Political Science, Dr. Todd Laporte, a political scientist at UC Berkeley, saw great potential in Kai Lee. Following his research at UC Berkeley, Lee went on to the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, where he met two colleagues, Dr. Gordon Oreans, a biologist, and Dr. Don Matthews, a political scientist. Lee believes that minority students bring important and sometimes beneficially different cultural and psychological perspectives to the field of environmental studies. For this reason Lee has worked with many minority students through summer research projects during his academic career.

Academic career

Kai Lee served as a professor at the

from 1973-1991. During this time, he sat on the board of the Northwest Power Planning Council. Kai Lee published his first major works while in

. The first was a book, published in 1980, concerning the role of electric power in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. The second was a discussion paper published by the Northwest Power Planning Council in 1982 concerning the approach taken by future energy policy in the region. In the paper, Lee argued that because any plan for a regional system has uncertainties, there would be risks involved with the plan. These risks could be managed by selecting a combination of programs that would minimize the risk taken. Lee also recognized that this approach was different from previous approaches, so he asserted that discussion and criticism of this plan was greatly needed. These ideas would greatly inform his later thinking. Kai Lee then accepted a professorship as the Director of the Center of

Environmental Studies Environmental studies is a multidisciplinary academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment. Environmental studies connects principles from the physical sciences, commerce/economics, the humanities, and social ...

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

Williamstown, Massachusetts Williamstown is a town in the northern part of Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts, United States. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolit ...

. He would hold the post twice, from 1991–1998 and 2001-2002. When he left

in 2007, he held the title of Rosenburg Professor of

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

. Kai Lee’s best-known book, Compass and Gyroscope (1993), would be published during his time at

. A treatise on public policy, Compass and Gyroscope argued that the best way for public policy to serve humanity in the future would be to adopt “social learning” into policymaking. Social learning combined the theory of

adaptive management Adaptive management, also known as adaptive resource management or adaptive environmental assessment and management, is a structured, iterative process of robust decision making in the face of uncertainty, with an aim to reducing uncertainty over ...

with a pragmatic approach to politics. The theory of

views public policy experimentally: any policy has to be constructed to obtain knowledge through trial and error. If a policy works, it would be left alone. Conversely, if a policy didn’t work, it would be easily reversible. Lee described the process as similar to using a compass: if the compass gave the right bearing, the user could continue to follow the path, and if the compass gave the wrong bearing, the user could easily retrace his steps and obtain another, more correct bearing.

Adaptive management Adaptive management, also known as adaptive resource management or adaptive environmental assessment and management, is a structured, iterative process of robust decision making in the face of uncertainty, with an aim to reducing uncertainty over ...

would be supplemented by politics, which Lee described as “bounded conflict.” The process of

would inevitably create conflict; it was the role of the political process to discuss and criticize a policy that was not working in order to create better policy. This would be similar to a

gyroscope A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rota ...

, which charts a ship’s course independent of external influences. Social learning would essentially be a feedback loop between adaptive management and the political process. Kai Lee also served on the Board of

Sustainable Development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...

of the

National Research Council National Research Council may refer to: * National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development * National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome * National Research Council (United States), part of ...

during his time at

, and incorporated his ideas into Our Common Journey (1999), a book that outlines the purpose of the Board of Sustainable Development. The book illustrates the best practical application of social learning toward public policy; in this case social learning would help the board achieve a goal of global sustainability, which it defined as “a concept that linked global peace, freedom, improved living conditions and a healthy environment.”

The Packard Foundation

The "David and Lucile

" was created in 1964 by

David Packard David Packard ( ; September 7, 1912 – March 26, 1996) was an American electrical engineer and co-founder, with Bill Hewlett, of Hewlett-Packard (1939), serving as president (1947–64), CEO (1964–68), and chairman of the board (1964–6 ...

(1912–1996), the co-founder of the

Hewlett-Packard Company The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

, and Lucile Salter Packard (1914–1987)” (“About the Foundation”). The

is an organization that provides volunteer leadership and private funding for the benefit of the public. "The Packard Foundation is committed to advancing collaborative research and grant-making in the sciences as a critical component of long-term conservation” (Foster: 2006). The organization focuses its grant-making into three program areas: Conservation and Science Program,

Population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

and Reproductive Health Program, and Children, Families, and Communities Program. In June 2007, Kai Lee was assigned the position of program officer for Science in the Conservation and Science Program. His “role at the Foundation ocuseslargely on supporting the development and application of an

ecosystem-based management Ecosystem-based management is an environmental management approach that recognizes the full array of interactions within an ecosystem, including humans, rather than considering single issues, species, or ecosystem services in isolation. It can be ...

(EBM) framework for coastal-

marine conservation Marine conservation, also known as ocean conservation, is the protection and preservation of ecosystems in oceans and seas through planned management in order to prevent the over-exploitation of these marine resources. Marine conservation is in ...

and

fisheries management The goal of fisheries management is to produce sustainable biological, environmental and socioeconomic benefits from renewable aquatic resources. Wild fisheries are classified as renewable when the organisms of interest (e.g., fish, shellfish, am ...

” (Foster: 2006). Lee also works “closely with Conservation and Science Program Director Walter V. Reid to develop a long-range grant-making strategy to strengthen the contribution of science to public and private sector decision-making concerning conservation and the environment” (Foster: 2006). Kai Lee wishes to establish a link between those conducting this research and the politicians who have the power to enforce long-term conservation policies.http://www.packard.org/categoryList.aspx?RootCatID=2&CategoryID=2

References

External links

The Packard Foundation

The National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences Meeting
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Kai Living people University of Washington faculty Williams College faculty American male writers Year of birth missing (living people)