Lee Marek Chicago, IL | 7-12, Science, 1986

Lee Marek taught various chemistry courses and teacher programs at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) for 12 years. He taught AP Chemistry and Chemistry at Naperville North High School for 30 years. His students have won national recognition in the International Chemistry Olympiad, the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, and the Internet Science and Technology Fair. For 13 summers, he helped to run a history of science program in Europe. Lee has helped to run over 600 workshops/programs for teachers, students, and the general public for 30 years. He helped to start up and ran a teachers’ alliance group with over 400 members called CHEMWEST in the Chicago area. Among the awards Lee has received are PAEMST; American Chemical Society’s (ACS) James Bryant Conant Award; ACS Helen Free Award for Public Outreach; Golden Apple Award; Sigma Xi; and Chemical Manufacturers Association’s (CMA) National Catalyst Award for Teaching. He was a Woodrow Wilson Chemistry Team leader for 10 years and a Flinn Team leader for nine. Lee has presented via videos, laser disks, DVDs, and some of the first streaming science videos on the web and has consulted for numerous science-related projects. Lee was a regular (with over 35 performances by him or his students) on The David Letterman Show—one of his segments was an Emmy finalist. He was highlighted on the 40th anniversary of the Bozo Show and the CBS News special, “Education: Our Nation’s Toughest Assignment.” He authored several kid’s science books and worked on several projects for Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman. Lee has a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois and M.S. degrees in chemistry and another in physics from Roosevelt University in Chicago. He has done additional work at over 20 universities.

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