Thomas H. Lee

Thomas H. Lee (; May 11, 1923 – February 4, 2001) was a Chinese-American electrical engineer and writer. He worked for General Electric for 30 years, where he developed the first practical vacuum interrupter and the silicon rectifier in the 1960s. In the 1980s he served as the Philip Sporn Professor of Energy Processing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-chaired the MIT Sloan School's Management of Technology program. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1975 and a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2000. He was an IEEE Fellow and received the IEEE Haraden Pratt Award in 1983.

Early life and education Lee was born May 11, 1923, in Shanghai, Republic of China (ROC). He graduated from National Chiao Tung University (now Shanghai Jiao Tong University) in 1946 with a B.S. in mechanical engineering. While in college, he won the doubles gold medal in the Pan-Asia Table Tennis Championship. In the 1960s, he developed the first silicon rectifier which has since replaced the less reliable mercury-arc rectifier in high-voltage direct current transmission. He held 30 U.S. patents. In 1980, he joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the invitation of Gerald L. Wilson, Dean of the School of Engineering. He was appointed the Philip Sporn Professor of Energy Processing in 1982. He served as Director of the Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems and co-chaired the MIT Sloan School's Management of Technology program. He also served as Director of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna from 1984. and a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2000.

Personal life He was married to Kin Ping Lee. The couple lived in Boston and had three sons: William, Thomas Jr. and Richard, and eight grandchildren.

Lee died on February 4, 2001, at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was 77.