Meet Wei-Hao Lee. Lee is a third year Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology at Rice University. Lee is from Taiwan and is a Rice Graduate Ambassador. Ambassadors are students who represent the university and help prospective students gain knowledge of student life as a graduate student at Rice.
Lee chose Rice as a graduate school because of his passion to do research and the school’s location. His research focuses on the tiny creatures—bacteria and viruses—in human bodies and how they are associated with human diseases, such as cancer.
“In our lab, we further leverage the power of computation and math to describe the interactions between humans and microbes and hopefully find some signatures for disease diagnosis or cure,” he explained.
When he is not conducting research, he is serving in various leadership roles within the Rice community. He is a part of Rice Taiwanese Graduate Student Association on campus.
Lee advises prospective students that the easiest way to make friends is to “go to events in your program and attend all the activities that you can,” said Lee.
Lee advises current students to use the resources available to them to provide additional support to them during their graduate studies. “This school have resources to help with academic pressures, it is okay to get help,” said Lee.
Outside of academics, Lee enjoys to cook chinese dishes and attending the Houston Zoo, Museum District, different coffee shops and hiking trails in Houston.
Graduate ambassadors can be contacted via email at gradambassadors@rice.edu. Wei-Hao Lee can be contacted directly by email at wl61@rice.edu.