Long before Linda Lee realized that a path to academic excellence existed, she took a teacher’s advice to flex her math and science muscles rather than pursue her junior high-age ambition to conduct orchestras.
Then, for a while, the animal lover was a pre-veterinary medicine major. But her undergraduate work in a University of Florida soils lab yielded a “Get her out of the sink and get her on the bench” endorsement — conduct research instead of cleaning up after it. A bachelor’s degree in chemistry and advanced degrees (environmental engineering sciences, then soil chemistry and contaminant hydrology) produced “a hybrid,” she says.
“I didn’t realize how well that would serve me, both in leading academic initiatives as well as interacting with farmers, engineers and industry.”
It helps explain why Lee, a more than capable musician and a professor of agronomy at Purdue University since 1993, is the 2025 Spirit of the Land-Grant Mission Award recipient.
The award, which dates to 2008 and is named for the late Corinne Alexander, a former Purdue agricultural economics professor, salutes excellence in integrating and promoting Purdue’s core mission as a land-grant institution: discovery, engagement and learning. Those chosen often have a Purdue Extension appointment. Lee, who doesn’t, says that made her nomination even more meaningful.
“My biggest contribution to Purdue is research and training graduate students,” she says. The running total is above 50, and most were or are PhD students. Lee has led Purdue’s ecological sciences and engineering interdisciplinary graduate program since 2006. “It’s amazing to foster this cross-discipline interaction. To see students become people that they want to become but who don’t yet exist — but do exist by the time they graduate. They get jobs. It’s rewarding to see the domino effect. You’re pouring into these graduate students who are going to impact the world.”
With degrees from three U. of Florida colleges, Lee understands how universities work — or don’t. Purdue fosters something rare, she says. Something right up the land-grant alley.
“I like the College of Agriculture. That’s why I picked it,” Lee says. “The people are more family oriented and supportive. Less cutthroat. And I like Purdue.
“This is why I’m still at Purdue: The walls are very thin. You can work across departments and colleges so easily. That is a huge attribute for Purdue. You do not find this at a lot of universities.
“When we’re trying to recruit faculty, I tell them while we’re not East Coast or West Coast, you’re going to find an atmosphere of collaboration. That doesn’t mean we don’t have competition. We do. But we also want people to be successful.”
Since 2005, Lee’s research has included PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, aka “forever chemicals.” Soon after, it grew to be the primary focus. Now of international concern, PFAS have been around for many decades. “We don’t need to have PFAS in our paper products, shampoo, lotions or makeup,” Lee says. She is glad to see students applying to Purdue “who want to be working in this space. It’s a growing space.” Meanwhile, she prescribes knowledge and patience.
“No matter what I said in the early years, no one took me seriously that PFAS were going to be a problem and ripe for research,” she says, “though we should’ve known compounds with that many carbon fluorine bonds will not degrade easily.” Still, she’s “surprised how many people know so little” about PFAS. She spoke this year in Indianapolis to a sizable gathering of wastewater engineers. “Very few of them knew anything about PFAS. There’s part of the population with growing interest and part of the population who continue to remain clueless. Both extremes.”
She says the semiconductor industry provides context. PFAS are integral to current production; alternatives are being sought. If a much-discussed semiconductor plant is built in West Lafayette, treatment can be included in the layout. Adding that capacity to existing plants is difficult.
“I really think the PFAS landscape, in terms of discharges and uses, will change in the next five years,” Lee says. “We’re getting closer to treatment technology options that can be scaled and affordable, although there’s no silver bullet — it’s always a treatment train.”
