Benjamin W. Lee was born in Seoul, Korea. Before finishing high school, he entered the department of Chemical Engineering at Seoul National University. He was one of the best students. During his time in college, he transferred to the United States. He graduated from Miami University. Lee received a master degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania at the age of 25. Lee worked at Institute for Advanced Study. He was a professor of physics at University of Pennsylvania, SUNY at Stony Brook, University of Chicago, and head of the theoretical physics department at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. On June 16, 1977, he was killed in a car accident near Kewanee, Illinois. Lee studied symmetry principles and weak interactions.