Her book, The Arts of the Microbial World: Fermentation Science in Twentieth-Century Japan (The University of Chicago Press, 2021) won the prize for Best Book in the Humanities (English Language). The prize is awarded by the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) to outstanding publications in the field of Asian Studies. Arts of the Microbial World is the first in-depth study of Japanese fermentation science in the twentieth century.

The other shortlisted candidates were:

• Anand A. Yang, Empire of Convicts: Indian Penal Labor in Colonial Southeast Asia, University of California Press, 2021
• Bryna Goodman, The Suicide of Miss Xi: Democracy and Disenchantment in the Chinese Republic, Harvard University Press, 2021
• Jeannie N. Shinozuka, Biotic Borders: Transpacific Plant and Insect Migration and the Rise of Anti-Asian Racism in America, 1890–1950, The University of Chicago Press, 2022
• Vincent Goossaert, Heavenly Masters: Two Thousand Years of the Daoist State, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press and University of Hawai’i Press, 2021

Victoria Lee received her Ph.D. from the History Department. She is currently Associate Professor at Ohio University.