Faculty

PhD Prepared Faculty

Knoo Lee

PhD, RN

  • Assistant Professor
Lee Knoo

Knoo Lee began his scholastic focus in the field of engineering, but after two years of study, he went into the Korean Navy. Once there, he was influenced by his experiences to go into nursing. After getting his nursing education, he realized the potential behind bridging the technology and health care worlds. 

“I became interested in utilizing informatics to expand the boundary of human knowledge,” explains Lee. This focus used data driven methodologies and big data analytics to pair his engineering background and his nursing background into one. After completing three years of research at the University of Minnesota, he applied for the Preparing Future Faculty – Faculty Diversity Postdoctoral Program here at the MU Sinclair School of Nursing (MUSSON).

“I was fascinated at how data could speak for itself,” Lee explains. “The collaboration at Mizzou between the School of Engineering and the Sinclair School of Nursing was a perfect fit.”

For the future, Lee wants to continue expanding the use of informatics and data driven research as it supports nursing and intervention. “Nursing informatics is quite new in the health care field and the potential for its benefits, paired with the lab and faculty team here at the MUSSON, is very exciting,” says Lee.

  • Dissertation Award – Midwest Nursing Research Society, Health Policy, Systems and Informatics Research and Implementation Interest Group, Spring 2024
  • Building Bridges: Collaborative Development of an Open-Source Virtual Reality (VR) Simulation for Nursing Education to Empower Diverse Nursing Students (Lee, PI) — MU South African Education Program, 2023-2025
  • Development of a Scenario-Based Virtual Learning Environment of Escalating Clinical Situation using VR Technology for Nursing Students (Lee, PI) — MU Postdoctoral Research Grant program, MU Office of Postdoctoral Education, $1500, 2022-2023
  • Sophia Fund, School of Nursing, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 2020
  • Violet A. Shea Scholarship, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 2019
  • Marilee Miller Fellowship, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 2019
  • Connie W. Delaney Fellowship, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 2019
  • Beatrice Witt Scholarship, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 2019
  • Violet A Shea Scholarship and Shea Nursing Fellowship, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 2018
  • Rosemary Chase Scholarship, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 2018

In the news

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Students are missing more school, and school nurses may be well-positioned to help


An MUSSON study led by Knoo Lee, PhD, RN, examines the role school nurses play in identifying students at risk for chronic absenteeism.

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MU SSON researcher finds factors linked with chronic school absenteeism


Findings can help tailor interventions with the goal of increasing school attendance for at-risk youth.

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Interdimensional collaboration


Exploring the areas of virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and artificial intelligence, Mizzou scholars are working across disciplines to enter the metaverse.