David Lee earned both his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Pusan National University in South Korea. He began his career as a research engineer at Hyundai and LG Industrial Systems before pursuing further graduate studies in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, where he obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. in 2016. Following his doctoral studies, he held a postdoctoral research position at the Center for Space Research at the University of Texas at Austin from 2016 to 2018. He then joined Iowa State University as an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering and is currently a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at California State University, Long Beach.

Dr. Lee's research centers on learning-based guidance and control systems for vehicles such as cars, drones, and spacecraft. His work includes applications in spacecraft attitude determination and control, Mars entry, descent, and landing, as well as the development of CubeSat-based space missions.