I-Min Lee’s primary area of interest is in the role of physical activity for preventing chronic diseases and enhancing longevity, and in women’s health. She has published more than 450 scientific articles. She is lead editor of the textbook Epidemiologic Methods in Physical Activity Studies, which has been translated into the Korean language, and is co-editor of Physical Activity Epidemiology, now undergoing its 3rd edition. She has served on national and international expert panels developing physical activity guidelines, including the 2008 US Physical Activity Guidelines, the 2010 WHO Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health, and the 2013 AHA/ACC Guideline on Lifestyle Management to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk. She sits on the international steering committee for the Lancet Physical Activity Series.
She serves as multiple principal investigator of the Women’s Health Study (WHS), a completed clinical trial testing low-dose aspirin and vitamin E for preventing cardiovascular disease and cancer among 40,000 women, 1992-2004, whose participants now continue to be followed observationally. She is principal investigator of a study that objectively measured 7 days of physical activity with accelerometers in 18,000 women from the WHS from 2011-2015; participants are now being followed for various health outcomes and mortality. She is principal investigator of the Harvard Alumni Health Study, a long-standing prospective cohort study of 33,000 Harvard alumni begun by Professor Ralph Paffenbarger in the 1960’s that primarily focuses on the relations of physical activity with long-term health outcomes. She is Co-Investigator in VITAL, a completed clinical trial evaluating the role of vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acid supplements in the primary prevention of cancer and cardiovascular disease among almost 26,000 multiethnic participants throughout the US, 2011-2018, who are currently being followed observationally.