Li Fu Lee (1904–1985) was a Chinese engineer and teacher who in 1925 became the first Chinese woman to attend the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She majored in electrical engineering, a course which some undergraduates at the time described as the most difficult
major. She was one of the 25 women who graduated from MIT in 1929 and one of the first women to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering at MIT. After graduating, Lee returned to China, where she became an engineer and taught at university. She fled with her family to Taiwan during the
Chinese Civil War and later returned to the United States, residing in Chicago. This 1925 photograph shows Lee at MIT's radio experiment station.
Photograph credit: Underwood & Underwood; restored by Adam Cuerden