My name is Gaik Ee Lee and I was born in Ipoh, Malaysia. As I look back, it never crossed my mind that I would become a biologist or bryologist, to be specific. I must thank God for His leading and provision for the past 18 years on this path of never-ending discovery of these tiny plants, aka bryophytes. It all started in my undergraduate days in the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia when I was required to take a cryptogam subject. Since then, I have been exceptionally fascinated with bryophytes. The final year project in my bachelor’s degree and master’s degree was on moss diversity in two rainforests in Peninsular Malaysia, i.e. Royal Belum State Park and Krau Wildlife Reserve. In 2007, I met Prof. Robbert Gradstein in the biennial training course on Biodiversity and Conservation of Bryophytes and Lichens at SEAMEO-BIOTROP, Bogor, Indonesia. He encouraged me to study liverworts in Malaysia. With the motivation and support of Dr Ahmad Damanhuri and Prof. Abdul Latiff Mohamad, I pursued my PhD in liverworts with the thesis’s title: A systematic revision of the genus Lejeunea Lib. in Malaysia. I was awarded a National Science Foundation Scholarship Award (NSF) of Malaysia for this project. In 2008, on receipt of a short-term Research Scholarship to Germany, I extended my knowledge of liverworts, particularly Lejeunea, from Prof. Robbert Gradstein. In 2010, I again received a short-term Research Scholarship to Japan, joining the team of Prof. Hironori Deguchi and learning molecular techniques (DNA extraction, PCR and sequencing). I completed my PhD in 2012 and then was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. One year later, I moved to Germany to join the late Prof. Jochen Heinrichs laboratory in Munich at the Ludwig Maximilian University, where an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation postdoctoral fellowship enabled me to work on the systematics and biogeography of Lejeunea. Also, under the sponsorship of the Humboldt Foundation, I obtained a Europe Research Stay to the EGR, Hungary and worked on several Lejeunea projects with Prof. Tamás Pócs. I am currently working as a senior lecturer at the Universiti Malaysia Terengganu teaching Taxonomy and Systematics of Organisms, Principles of Ecology, Scientific Writing in Biology, and Bryology. Recently, I received research grants both nationally and internationally for projects on epiphyllous liverworts in Malaysia. I am the first and, thus far, the only woman biologist studying liverworts in Malaysia. Being the first is not easy and always challenging. Still, the guidance and support from skilled and experienced mentors like Prof. Robbert Gradstein, Prof. Tamás Pócs, the late Prof. Jochen Heinrichs, Dr Ahmad Damanhuri and Prof. Abdul Latiff Mohamad have made my journey a fruitful and well-pursued one.

Biography in my national language, Bahasa Melayu:

Nama saya Gaik Ee Lee dan saya dilahirkan di Ipoh, Malaysia. Merenung balik perjalanan saya sebagai ahli penyelidik, saya tidak pernah terfikir untuk menjadi seorang ahli biologi, khasnya ahli briologi. Saya bersyukur kepada Tuhan atas berkat dan rahmat-Nya selama 18 tahun yang lalu dalam perjalanan saya menerokai tumbuh-tumbuhan kecil yang dikenali sebagai briofit. Pengalaman saya dengan briofit bermula semasa zaman sarjana muda saya di Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia apabila saya mengambil kursus kriptogam. Sejak itu, saya tertarik dengan keunikan briofit. Projek tahun akhir ijazah sarjana muda dan sarjana saya adalah mengenai kepelbagaian lumut jati di hutan-hutan di Semenanjung Malaysia iaitu Taman Negeri Royal Belum dan Rizab Hidupan Liar Krau. Pada tahun 2007, saya menghadiri kursus latihan mengenai Biodiversiti dan Pemuliharaan Briofit dan Liken di SEAMEO-BIOTROP, Bogor, Indonesia dan berkenalan dengan Prof. Robbert Gradstein. Beliau mendorong saya memulakan kajian lumut hati di Malaysia. Dengan bimbingan dan sokongan Dr Ahmad Damanhuri dan Prof. Abdul Latiff Mohamad, saya memulakan pengajian saya ke peringkat PhD dengan tajuk tesis: Semakan sistematik genus Lejeunea Lib. di Malaysia. Saya telah menerima Anugerah Biasiswa National Science Foundation (NSF) Malaysia untuk projek ini. Sepanjang tempoh pengajian tersebut, saya turut menerima dua biasiswa lain yang membolehkan saya mendapatkan latihan di luar negara iaitu Biasiswa Penyelidikan Jangka Pendek ke Jerman untuk mendalami pengetahuan morfologi lumut hati, terutamanya Lejeunea dengan Prof. Robbert Gradstein, dan Biasiswa Penyelidikan Jangka Pendek ke Jepun untuk mempelajari teknik molekul (pengekstrakan dan penjujukan DNA, dan PCR) dengan kumpulan Prof. Hironori Deguchi. Pada tahun 2012, saya berjaya menamatkan PhD saya dan meneruskan kajian pasca-kedoktoran di Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Pada tahun 2014, saya telah menerima biasiswa pasca doktoral Yayasan Alexander von Humboldt untuk menjalankan kajian sistematik dan biogeografi Lejeunea bersama dengan kumpulan arwah Prof. Jochen Heinrichs di Munich di Ludwig Maximilian University. Selain itu, di bawah tajaan Yayasan Humboldt, saya juga memperoleh Europe Research Stay di EGR, Hungary dan mengkaji beberapa projek Lejeunea bersama Prof. Tamás Pócs. Sekarang, saya merupakan pensyarah kanan di Universiti Malaysia Terengganu dan mengajar kursus Taksonomi dan Sistematik Organisma, Prinsip Ekologi, Penulisan Saintifik dalam Biologi, dan Briologi. Kebelakangan ini, saya berjaya mendapatkan geran penyelidikan di peringkat kebangsaan dan antarabangsa untuk projek mengenai lumut hati epifil di Malaysia. Saya merupakan orang yang pertama dan setakat ini, satu-satunya penyelidik biologi wanita yang mengkaji lumut hati di Malaysia. Sebagai seorang yang pertama, perjalanan saya tidak pernah mudah, sebaliknya kian mencabar. Namun begitu, atas bimbingan dan tunjukajar mentor-mentor yang mahir dan berpengalaman seperti Prof. Robbert Gradstein, Prof. Tamás Pócs, arwah Prof. Jochen Heinrichs, Dr Ahmad Damanhuri dan Prof. Abdul Latiff Mohamad, perjalanan saya membuahkan hasil yang baik dan bermakna.

Selected publication in the past 5 years:

Lee G.E. & S.R. Gradstein. 2021. Guide to the genera of liverworts and hornworts of Malaysia. Hattori Botanical Laboratory Publisher. 234 pp.

Lee G.E., T.Pócs, L. Söderström, A. Hagborg & M. von Konrat. 2021. Notes on Early Land

Plants Today. Transfer of African Taxilejeunea to Lejeunea (Lejeuneaceae, Marchantiophyta). Lindbergia. doi: 10.25227/linbg.01151

Lee G.E. & T.Pócs 2021. Lejeunea masamiana (Lejeuneaceae), a new species from Indonesian New Guinea. Hattoria 12: 1-7.

Sarimi M.S., T.Pócs & G.E. Lee. 2021. Data to the Malaysian flora, III: New Lejeuneaceae records from Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia. Cryptogamie, Bryologie 42: 249-267.

Pesiu E., M.S. Muhammad, N.A. Shafie, C.W. Koid, M. Ghazaly, N. Norhazrina,T. Pócs & G.E. Lee. 2021. First floristic study on epiphyllous bryophytes of the state Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia. Check List 17: 1403-1419.

Lee G.E. 2020.Morphological data of the genus Lejeunea (Marchantiophyta: Lejeuneaceae) in the Malesian region. Data in Brief 28: 104958.

Lee G.E., Pócs T., Koid C.W. & He X.L. 2020. New species of Lejeunea (Porellales: Lejeuneaceae) from Papua New Guinea. The Bryologist 123(3): 495-501.

Lee G.E.,Fabien L. Condamine, Julia Bechteler, Oscar Alejandro Pérez-Escobar, Armin Scheben, Alfons Schäfer-Verwimp, Tamás Pócs & Jochen Heinrichs. 2020. An ancient tropical origin, dispersals via land bridges and Miocene diversification explain the subcosmopolitan disjunctions of the liverwort genus Lejeunea. Scientific Reports 10:14123

Pócs T., G.E. Lee, J. Podani, E. Pesiu, J. Havasi,  H.Y. Tang, A.M.A. Mustapeng & M. Suleiman. 2020. A study of community structure and beta diversity of epiphyllous assemblages in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Phytokeys 153: 63-83.

Lee G.E., J. Bechteler,T. Pócs & A. Schäfer-Verwimp. 2019. Molecular and morphological evidence for a new species of liverwort, Lejeunea heinrichsii (Marchantiophyta: Lejeuneaceae) from Taveuni, Fiji. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 57: 361-370.doi: 10.1111/jse.12470

Lee G.E., T. Pócs, S.R. Gradstein, A. Damanhuri & A. Latiff. 2018. Abundant but neglected: Past and present of liverwort (Marchantiophyta) studies in Malaysia. Cryptogamie Bryologie 39: 83-91.

Lee G.E. &T. Pócs. 2018. Additions to the distribution of some Palaeotropic Lejeunea (Marchantiophyta) species, with the description of Lejeunea konratii sp. nov. from Fiji. Phytotaxa 349: 31-38.

Lee, G.E., J. Bechteler & J. Heinrichs. 2018. A revision of unrevised names in the former genus Taxilejeunea (Marchantiophyta: Lejeuneaceae) from Asia. Phytotaxa 358: 26-48.

Lee G.E., L. Kolberg, J. Bechteler, A. Schäfer-Verwimp, M.A.M. Renner, A.R. Schmidt, J. Heinrichs. 2017. The leafy liverwort genus Lejeunea (Porellales, Jungermanniopsida) in Miocene Dominican amber. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 238: 144-150.

Bechteler J., A. Schäfer-Verwimp, G.E. Lee, K. Feldberg, O.A. Pérez-Escobar, T. Pócs, D.F. Peralta, M.A.M. Renner, J. Heinrichs. 2017. Geographical structure, narrow species ranges, and Cenozoic diversification in a pantropical clade of epiphyllous leafy liverworts. Ecology and Evolution 7: 638-653.

Lee G.E., J. Bechteler, T. Pócs, A. Schäfer-Verwimp  & J. Heinrichs. 2016. Molecular and morphological evidence for an intercontinental range of the liverwort Lejeunea pulchriflora (Marchantiophyta: Lejeuneaceae). Organisms Diversity and Evolution 16: 13-21.

Pócs T. & G.E. Lee.2016. Data to the Malaysian liverwort flora, II. Cryptogamie Bryologie 37: 39-52.