Professor Carol Eunmi Lee leads the Lee Lab in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. She joined the faculty in 2000 following her postdoctoral research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (University of California in San Diego). Her research examines mechanisms of biological invasions, including evolutionary genetic/genomic and physiological mechanisms underlying the ability of populations to invade novel environments. In addition, her lab also investigates rapid evolutionary responses to climate change. 

Research in Professor Lee's laboratory focuses on why particular populations could invade novel habitats, whereas others cannot. Her lab is currently exploring genomic mechanisms underlying physiological adaption associated with habitat invasions. It is investigating physiological and genetic targets of selection during repeated and independent freshwater invasions. Her students have developed multiple inbred lines from saline ancestral and freshwater invading populations for the purposes of QTL-mapping, genome sequencing, and the determination of cis- vs trans-regulation of candidate genes. Examining the repeatability of mechanisms underlying freshwater adaptation could reveal whether these evolutionary pathways are labile or constrained.