Overview:
'I show up as me.”-Dr. Danielle N. Lee
What is a Tanzanian giant pouched rat and how is it able to sniff out landmines, tuberculosis and possibly illegal drugs?
There are only a handful of people who can answer that question and Dr. Danielle N. Lee, assistant professor of biological sciences at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is one of them.
Like Bill Nye “the Science Guy” or Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lee makes science-related topics not only interesting but fun and relatable. When explaining her life or her work she punctuates sentences with bodacious laughter. For example, when delivering her 2015 TED Talk on her team’s research of the giant African pouched rat, Lee wore a black evening gown with a knitted broach in her hair ala like singer Billy Holiday.
“That’s part of my intentionality when I show up in historical or academic science spaces. I show up as me,” Lee stressed adding: “That was my signature look; showing up with a flower in my hair. I would catch some flack at science conferences from people asking, ‘why do you do that?’ And I’d answer, ‘because I’m a beaut, that’s why.’”
There was even a bit of humor when Lee described the African poached rat; making sure there was no confusion with a Memphis, Chicago, New York or St. Louis rat.
“Oh no, those are like tiny, little pets…completely different species all together.”
The long road to becoming a featured Ted Talk science speaker started in Lee’s hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. She described her biological father as a “naturally trained man in the sciences” but a musician by trade. Her stepfather, she said, was an “outdoorsy” educator who still avidly watches nature shows today.
She was always fascinated by the plants and insects in her backyard. That interest peaked as she (the oldest of four siblings) went to work with her mother at the Memphis parks and recreational department.
“That’s how I got into it. I’d tag along with her and spend time outside,” Lee recalled.
She enrolled in college intent on becoming a veterinarian. Lee graduated with a degree in animal science but was swayed by courses she had taken in animal behavior, which she described as “a sub discipline of ecology and evolution.”
“As I got deeper into it, I started peeling back the layers of biology and the evolutionary and ecological foundations of behavior,” Lee explained. “I finally formally learned about the stuff I had always been curious about. I learned vocabulary, concepts and the biology of how and why animals behave the way they do.”
Proudly asserting that she has been in school her “whole life,” Lee detailed her obsession with learning how animals have adapted through time.
“It’s interesting to think about how history-and I mean long history, millions and millions and millions of years-have played a role in how organisms make a living,” she said.
After graduation, Lee rode the academic track but kept building her portfolio by pursuing her master’s and PhD (both in biology) while teaching classes at SIUE.
She is best known for her science blogging and outreach efforts focusing on increasing minority participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. In a way, she’s attempting to give what she didn’t receive growing up in Tennessee.
“I am ministering to my younger self,” Lee said. “I was a kid who enjoyed outdoors and animals and science. My family and community were supportive of me, but they didn’t have the capacity to give me objective information to guide me to that. So, I had to figure out a lot of stuff on my own.”
Her passion isn’t just about ensuring more people of color enter the science field.
“I would describe it this way: I want to make sure that people who come from historically excluded and marginalized communities-I call them communities where science is underserved-are exposed.”
In 2017, Lee was selected as a “National Geographic Emerging Explorer,” which was, in part, bestowed on her due to her work in Tanzania with a team researching the behavior and biology of landmine-sniffing giant pouched rats.
She is quick to note that some 20,000 people a year are killed from hidden land mines left in the ground from previous battles. Because she was trained in how animals-rats in particular-make decisions naturally, Lee’s research helped scientists formulate ways to train the rats how to sniff off certain particles better.
The results? Lee said because of their work, “millions of acres of land in Mozambique and Angola have been returned completely de-land mined…completely thanks to these rats.” The work, she said, is continuing “right now in Cambodia and Vietnam.”
“And that’s just the landmine stuff,” she added excitedly. “Tuberculosis (research) is in progress right now. The rats are being trained to detect positive samples (tuberculosis bacteria). They’re saving lives by making diagnoses happen faster.” She added that the rats are also being trained to detect contraband at airports and aid in search-and-rescue operations.
Be it teaching on campus or in after school classes, Lee’s goal is the same.
“I do what’s called ‘urban or placed or based science,’” she said. “I show young people that their neighborhoods or backyards are amazing scientific labs and field spaces, and that science is a rewarding, fun and viable career avenue.
“This is my niche.”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is the Deaconess Foundation Community Advocacy Fellow.