PhD
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Email: patrickc.lee@utoronto.ca
Tel: 416-946-5407
Office: MC311
Research Group: Multifunctional Composites Manufacturing Laboratory (MCML)
Research Areas
Materials
Thermofluids
Research Interests
Micro-/nano-structuring; Bio-inspired hierarchical hybrid composites; Recycling battery waste polymers; Bio-inspired nano-structuring of laser-induced graphene (LIG); Carbon foam/aerogel from biosources; Bio-based nanofibril-reinforced composites and foams; In-situ visualization under static and dynamic conditions; Crystallization study with Fast Scanning Calorimeter (FSC); Thermoresponsive composites for biomedical applications; Predictive foam modeling using machine learning; High-pressure reverse osmosis membranes; Microcellular foam; Nanocellular foam; Crystallization under gas/supercritical fluids; Foaming fundamentals; Computational modelling of foaming; Micro-/nano-fibrillar manufacturing; Process–structure relations of foams; Structure–property relations of foams; Battery materials and electrodes (including niobium-based systems); Polymer-based components for energy storage; Structure–property relationships in battery materials.
Bio
Dr. Lee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. He earned his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia, followed by an M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto in 2001 and 2006, respectively. He then completed postdoctoral research in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota.
In 2008, Dr. Lee began his professional career at The Dow Chemical Company as a Research Scientist and Project Leader within their R&D organization. In 2014, he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Vermont as an Assistant Professor, where he established an independent research program focused on lightweight and smart composite structures. He returned to the University of Toronto in July 2018 to join the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering.
Dr. Lee’s research specializes in polymer processing and characterization, with a particular focus on processing–structure–property relationships in hybrid nanocomposites and polymer foams. He has published 128 journal papers, over 160 refereed conference abstracts/papers, six book chapters, and holds 32 filed or issued patent applications. He serves as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on numerous nationally and internationally funded research projects supported by government agencies and industry partners.
His contributions have been recognized through several prestigious honors, including his election as a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) in 2024. He is also the recipient of the G.H. Duggan Medal from CSME (2020), the AKCSE Early Achievement Award (2019), the NSF CAREER Award (2018), the PPS Morand Lambla Award (2018), the Hanwha Advanced Materials Non-Tenured Faculty Award (2017), and three Best Paper Awards from the Society of Plastics Engineers (2005, two in 2011).