[3] [4][5] Lees has been an RAF officer (Flight Navigator)[4] and served in the Middle East, Europe (Operation Hallmark: a sensitive intelligence operation in which Pembrokes were fitted with high-powered reconnaissance cameras to acquire imagery of Soviet and East German military installations and airfields below tightly controlled air corridors [6] [4]), and Africa.
His career in geography began with flying as a navigator for ADASTRA AERIAL SURVEYS, engaged in mineral exploration and mapping projects.
Lees is also a special invited professor at the Institute of Soil and Water Conservation (Chinese Academy of Sciences).
[3][7] [5] Lees is a co-author of Advances in Digital Terrain Analysis: Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, published in 2008 by Springer Science+Business Media, and has authored and co-authored a number of papers and book chapters in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
[3] And with Shawn Laffan, "The lande of Java on the Jean Rotze Mappa Mundi", The Globe, no.