Dr. Cato T. Laurencin is the 2009 winner of the Pierre Galletti Award, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering’s (AIMBE) highest honor. Dr. Laurencin, who holds both an M.D. and a Ph.D., is Vice President for Health Affairs at the University of Connecticut Health Center, Dean of the UConn School of Medicine and a faculty member in the department of Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering in Storrs.

The Galletti Award recognizes contributions to public awareness of medical and biological engineering and to promotion of the national interest in science, engineering and education. The AIMBE cites Laurencin’s “seminal contribution to tissue engineering and international leadership in biomedical engineering.”

In receiving the award, Dr. Laurencin said “I am both honored and humbled to receive the Pierre Galletti Award. The award is really a tribute to those instrumental in my success in the field: Dr. Robert Langer, my Ph.D. adviser and lifelong mentor, my many great students, and of course my wonderful family.”

Dr. Laurencin holds the Health Center’s Van Dusen Endowed Chair in Academic Medicine Center and is a professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery. He earned dual degrees in 1987: a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering/biotechnology from MIT and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. His latest work uses polymer-based drug-delivery systems and nanotechnology to enhance bone and tissue regeneration.

Dr. Laurencin has received numerous honors, including election to the Institute of Medicine, the Presidential Faculty Fellowship Award from President Clinton, the William Grimes Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the Leadership in Technology Award from the New Millennium Foundation. Last year, he was named among “100 Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era” by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Read more about Dr. Laurencin here.