{"id":18481,"date":"2024-02-08T09:31:01","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T17:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/?p=18481"},"modified":"2024-06-12T09:56:59","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T16:56:59","slug":"earth-sciences-phd-graduate-hyejung-hazel-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/earth-sciences-phd-graduate-hyejung-hazel-lee\/","title":{"rendered":"From wood fossils to plant-based burgers with an Earth sciences degree"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                          \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/02\/Hazel_Lee_Profile_Top-768x432.png\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/02\/Hazel_Lee_Profile_Top-1920x1080.png 1920w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/02\/Hazel_Lee_Profile_Top-1280x720.png 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/02\/Hazel_Lee_Profile_Top-768x432.png 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  role=\"none\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Hyejung \u201cHazel\u201d Lee earned her Earth sciences PhD in 2019 at USC Dornsife and now is a scientist at plant-based meat company Beyond Meat. (Photo: Courtesy of Lee.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=alumni\">Alumni<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>From wood fossils to plant-based burgers with an Earth sciences degree<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Alumna Hyejung \u201cHazel\u201d Lee honed her lab skills at USC Dornsife, and now she uses them at Beyond Meat, a maker of meat substitutes.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Greg Hardesty<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">February 8, 2024<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m7.43475275 9.52380952-2.17490843 2.26076008c-1.08745421 1.058837-1.68841575 2.518315-1.68841575 4.0350275 0 1.5167124.60096154 2.9475732 1.68841575 4.0350274 1.058837 1.0874543 2.51831502 1.6884158 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xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m8.14285714 9.42857143c-.17142857 0-.34285714 0-.51428571.08571428l7.28571427 6.34285719c.3428572.2571428.6857143.2571428.9428572 0l7.2857142-6.34285719c-.0857142-.08571428-.2571428-.08571428-.4285714-.08571428zm-1.28571428 1.11428567v.1714286 8.5714286c0 .6857143.6 1.2857143 1.28571428 1.2857143h14.57142856c.6857143 0 1.2857143-.6 1.2857143-1.2857143v-8.5714286c0-.0857143 0-.0857143 0-.1714286l-7.2 6.3428572c-.7714286.6857143-1.8857143.6857143-2.6571429 0z\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" transform=\"translate(-6 -9)\"\/><\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>Hyejung \u201cHazel\u201d Lee spent her first 12 years in the concrete jungle.<\/p>\n<p>Through fifth grade, she lived in a skyscraper in Seoul, South Korea, before her father\u2019s job in the automotive industry necessitated a move to Fairfax County in Virginia.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sustainability.usc.edu\/assignment-earth\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-16067\" src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-150x150.png\" alt=\"On a gold background, &quot;Asgmt Earth&quot; appears inside a black circle and &quot;USC&quot; inside a small, white circle that slightly overlaps the black circle.\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-500x500.png 500w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-320x320.png 320w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric.png 1250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The seeds of Lee\u2019s interest in the natural world were planted during her three years living in Virginia, before she, her parents and older sister returned to South Korea, where Lee finished high school.<\/p>\n<p>Now, after earning a PhD from the <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/earth\/\">Department of Earth Sciences<\/a> at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, she\u2019s an accomplished scientist in a field in which women remain underrepresented. Now, she works at, of all places, a food company, an unusual vocation for an Earth sciences graduate.<\/p>\n<h2>From Earth science to meat substitutes<\/h2>\n<p>While working on her PhD, which she earned in 2019, Lee used plant molecules to study climate in her specialty of organic geochemistry. After she graduated, she joined Beyond Meat in El-Segundo, California, a producer of plant-based ground beef, sausage, burgers, chicken, jerky and meatballs.<\/p>\n<p>But Beyond Meat is no ordinary food company. Lee, as the company\u2019s senior scientist and analytical team lead, is conducting experiments on some of the same state-of-the-art lab equipment she first used in her studies at USC Dornsife.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLooking back, it was a natural transition,\u201d says Lee of joining Beyond Meat after spending six years at USC Dornsife, mostly in the lab of Professor of Earth Science <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/profile\/sarah-feakins\/\">Sarah Feakins<\/a>. Lee also gained invaluable lab skills with <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/profile\/travis-williams\/\">Travis Williams<\/a>, professor of chemistry.<\/p>\n<p>The resources and faculty expertise in the two departments seemed to fit her research efforts seamlessly, says Lee, the recipient, for two years, of a Provost <a href=\"https:\/\/graduateschool.usc.edu\/fellowships\/fellowships-for-phd-students\/\">Fellowship<\/a> \u2014 the highest attainable for USC doctoral students.<\/p>\n<h2>Ancient clues to past climates<\/h2>\n<p>Before she was a Trojan, Lee attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her undergraduate degree in environmental science.<\/p>\n<p>As a sophomore there, she spent a summer in Puerto Rico studying how storms impact the global carbon cycle \u2014 the flow of carbon through land, water and air. She learned about the importance of plants and organic matter and how they affect climate over time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got more and more interested in hands-on research and climate change, so I decided to go to graduate school,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Lee researched several universities and became intrigued with the work of Feakins, herself a successful scholar in a STEM field. Feakins\u2019 research included using biomarkers and isotopes \u2014 tiny clues left behind by ancient plants \u2014 to examine precipitation levels and vegetative changes on a large scale.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy looking at climate changing events in the past,\u201d Lee explains, \u201cyou can gain insights into what may happen in future climate events.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lee recalls that Feakins\u2019 lab had the newest equipment, including the isotope ratio mass spectrometry instruments, which are used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions.<\/p>\n<p>Lee was first author on four papers as a graduate student. Her first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S001670371630014X\">published study<\/a> demonstrated her innovative aptitude. Using different varieties of a genetically modified plant species, she analyzed how differences in the density of tiny pores in the plant affect how the plant takes up different chemical isotopes \u2014 knowledge that helps scientists understand Earth\u2019s past climates.<\/p>\n<p>Next, she optimized several methods, or \u201crecipes,\u201d to analyze fossil plant remains, publishing two more papers and further aiding the study of past climates.<\/p>\n<p>Having perfected this new way to analyze woody compounds, she got an exciting opportunity: applying the new method to understand the climatic significance of newly discovered remains of ancient forests deep in the Bay of Bengal. (The <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/sediments-sequester-carbon-from-climate\/\">discovery of these 19-million-year-old wood chips<\/a> made <em>Newsweek<\/em> and other national publications in 2019.)<\/p>\n<h2>Fearlessness delivers new \u201crecipe book\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Feakins says Lee came to USC Dornsife with a strong quantitative background. \u201cShe was a quick learner in the lab and had this nice fearlessness about her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Such fearlessness helped Lee explore new methods of experimentation, Feakins adds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBasically, what we do in the lab is like cooking, we follow tried and tested recipes and apply them to new questions,\u201d Feakins explains. \u201cHyejung\u2019s thesis was different; we moved from wax to wood and needed a completely different recipe book. Her meticulous \u00a0experimental work set up the approaches for our lab and proved what works and what doesn\u2019t. Having gotten the recipe right, she then tackled a major piece of work about the long history of wood burial offshore.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHyejung really had to try things and figure out whether the samples would yield the same results if we cooked them for longer or at different temperatures, or changed the amount of what we were reacting. And it helped us detemine how consistent the results could be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Feakins says Lee\u2019s calm demeanor was useful in dealing with all the issues that come up when testing out these new recipes.<\/p>\n<h2>A joy of figuring stuff out<\/h2>\n<p>At Beyond Meat, Lee established and oversees five lab spaces including eight mass spectrometers and other instruments used for nutritional analyses, microscopy, rheology (the study of the flow of matter), and the like. She conducts nutritional, flavor, texture and other analytical assays.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt first I was afraid I had to become a vegetarian when I started working here,\u201d she says with a laugh. (For the record, she\u2019s a flexitarian.)<\/p>\n<p>Lee loves the experimental nature of her job.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe core skill I learned at USC Dornsife of developing new methods is useful at Beyond Meat because we\u2019re doing something no one has done before,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re sort of starting from scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At work, Lee will do something as straightforward as determining the sodium content in Beyond Meat\u2019s products or as complex as trying to figure out what makes beef taste and smell like beef and experimenting with plant ingredients to match the chemical profile as close as possible to animal references.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really like my job,\u201d she says. \u201cIn many ways, I look at it as a once-in-a-lifetime job or project. I like working in somewhat new fields where everything is not figured out yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She also loves Beyond Meat\u2019s mission to create food products that significantly use less water, land and energy to make than products with real meat.<\/p>\n<h2>Recipe for success<\/h2>\n<p>Married to a strategy and operations specialist when she was nearing the completion of her PhD at USC Dornsife, Lee remains in Los Angeles while the rest of her family has returned to Seoul.<\/p>\n<p>Outside of work, she\u2019s into health and beauty trends, such as new ingredients in Korean skincare products. Recently, she\u2019s been doing a lot of reading about longevity and reversing the signs of aging.<\/p>\n<p>Lee\u2019s also trying to cook more.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFood is almost like chemistry,\u201d she says, smiling. \u201cYou start with a recipe and experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--section-title\">\n\n    \n  <h2>\n          Related Articles\n      <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/myanmar-earthquake-reveals-clues-about-future-quake-risk\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >What a devastating earthquake revealed about future quake risk<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/how-does-life-begin-and-could-it-exist-outside-of-earth\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >How does life begin \u2014 and could it exist outside of Earth?<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/eaton-fire-sent-a-pollution-wave-across-los-angeles\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Eaton fire sent a pollution wave across Los Angeles<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alumna Hyejung \u201cHazel\u201d Lee honed her lab skills at USC Dornsife, and now she uses them at Beyond Meats, a maker of meat substitutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":18482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,16],"tags":[159,1911,121,96],"class_list":["post-18481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-science-and-technology","tag-earth-sciences","tag-erth","tag-graduate","tag-natural-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>From wood fossils to plant-based burgers with an Earth sciences degree<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Earth sciences alumna Hyejung \u201cHazel\u201d Lee honed her lab skills at USC Dornsife, and now she uses them at Beyond Meats, a maker of plant-based meats\" 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