James Shee’s journey from gracing the stage as a professional ballet dancer to becoming an assistant professor of chemistry at Rice University may seem improbable. Yet for Shee, it all stems from a profound appreciation for beauty, whether expressed through movement or the elegance of an equation.
“There’s an intrinsic connection between ballet and science,” Shee said. “You’re constantly searching for a deeper understanding of the world — a new way to see ourselves and the world around us — all while keeping balance and being guided by beauty.”
This duality has shaped Shee’s career and motivates his work at Rice, where he aspires to share the creative and wonderfully human aspects of scientific inquiry.
A leap into ballet
Growing up in California, Shee trained at the Deane Dance Center, dedicating countless hours to mastering the art form of ballet. What started as an extracurricular activity quickly became a passion.
He honed his skills by spending summers at renowned programs such as the San Francisco Ballet, ultimately earning a spot as a trainee in the company. But his ambitions didn’t stop there. Shee deferred admission to Princeton University to join the National Ballet of Canada, where he immersed himself in the rigorous life of a professional dancer.
“Your entire life is about ballet, and at the time, I would have it no other way,” Shee said, reflecting on days filled with rehearsals and nightly performances.
While Shee thrived in this demanding artistic environment, he also glimpsed the fragility of a ballet career. Injuries or casting uncertainties could end a dancer’s livelihood in an instant. The overall incidence of injury among amateur and professional ballet dancers is 0.97 and 1.24 injuries per 1,000 dance hours, respectively, according to the National Library of Medicine .
From stage to science
After three years of postponement, Princeton gave Shee an ultimatum: enroll or lose your place. Faced with a difficult choice, he left professional ballet behind.
“It was a complicated decision,” he said. “One major factor was that I realized that I loved music as much as ballet, which gave me some confidence that I could still enjoy a life not 100% dedicated to dance.”
Initially, Shee explored careers in finance and medicine, but neither path resonated. The turning point came when some of his mathematics and science professors described theorems or equations with the same admiration that an artist might describe masterpieces such as “Giselle” or a Beethoven symphony.
This new perspective ignited Shee’s passion for theoretical chemistry. In the same way that rigorous technique endowed him with freedom of emotional expression in ballet, Shee began to see how rigorous mathematics could be harnessed by theorists to construct illuminating physical and chemical models.
The perfect balance
Graduate school at Columbia University allowed Shee to reconcile his passion for both ballet and science. By day, he delved into electronic structure theory and quantum chemical modeling; by night, he returned to the stage as a freelance dancer in New York City.
“Dancing gave me a sense of self, which can easily get lost in the day-to-day of learning science and doing research as a graduate student,” Shee said.
Shee credits ballet for instilling in him the discipline and resilience that drives his scientific endeavors. The same persistence that helped him perfect pirouettes fuels his high standards in the lab.
“Both art and science require you to push boundaries towards something unique and to get accustomed to failure as part of the process,” Shee said.
The scientist as an artist
In 2023, Shee joined the faculty at Rice where he channels his dual passions into his work as a quantum chemist and mentor.
His research focuses on predicting and understanding the electronic structure of molecules with potential implications for drug design, clean energy, chemical catalysis and quantum information science.
“My unconventional path is a testament to the idea that art and science are not opposites but congruent ways of celebrating and understanding our humanness and our world,” said Shee, who encourages his students to see science not as a collection of facts but as a creative endeavor.
“It is a wonderful feeling to use relatively abstract mathematical and computational models to glean intuition about the real world around us, to discover perhaps surprising or beautiful ways of seeing and appreciating the reactivity of a molecule or a physical phenomenon,” he said.
Beyond the lab, Shee is committed to promoting the arts on campus, especially dance. He is the faculty sponsor of Rice Dance Theatre and teaches free ballet classes at the Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center.
“I’m thrilled to do it,” Shee said.
Shee’s story is one of transformation and continuity. Whether leaping across a stage or deciphering the complexities of quantum mechanics, his work is driven by a desire to connect with something more significant — a creative and deeply human pursuit of perspective and beauty that transcends disciplines.