Faculty Profile: Marissa Lee

Assistant Professor of Engineering Marissa Lee ’18 joined the HMC faculty in July 2024. She’s excited for the spring semester, when she’ll co-teach E4 (Intro to Engineering Design & Manufacturing) and teach E164 (Intro to Biomedical Engineering). She’s building the Harvey Mudd Biomechanics Lab, where she and her students study human movement, injury prevention and performance using medical imaging, musculoskeletal simulation and wearable sensors. Here’s more about Marissa:

What is your favorite part about your job and why?

Getting to interact with our amazing students!

What is your favorite hobby, activity or creative outlet?

Eating spicy food!

What is your most effective strategy for dealing with stress?

Spending time with family and friends.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be and how would you use it at work?

Teleportation, mostly to easily see family and friends. It might not be very necessary on our campus, but perhaps it could enable some fun field trips to various labs and companies that do work aligned with our own!

Are you studying or learning something new? (a skill, a language, a sport, etc.)

I’m slowly learning Spanish—just hit my 400-day streak on Duolingo.

What book or podcast are you enjoying right now?

I enjoyed an episode of The Interview podcast with a medical aid in dying (MAID) provider in Canada. I found it very interesting, especially given the circumstances of the deaths of my grandmothers over the past two years. I also just enjoy The Interview on the whole. It introduces new perspectives and lets listeners in to the lives of people we often don’t feel connected to.

What is the last concert you attended?

Train and REO Speedwagon