Dr. Cato T. Laurencin is the first professor from the University of Connecticut to be elected to the Academia Europaea for his outstanding achievements as a researcher, along with his scholarship and eminence in his field. Membership to the Academia Europaea is by invite only after peer nomination and competition.
“I am very honored to be elected to this Academy. This further shows the importance of the field of Regenerative Engineering worldwide and its ability to bring breakthrough results aimed at ultimately helping people,” said Laurencin, University Professor at UConn and the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at UConn School of Medicine.
This year, in addition to being honored by the Academia Europaea, six additional academies across the world have elected Laurencin in the past 9 months: the European Academy of Sciences, the Senegalese Academy of Science and Technology, the Benin Academy of Science and Arts, the Indian Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Laurencin also serves as CEO of The Connecticut Convergence Institute for Translation in Regenerative Engineering at UConn Health and professor of chemical engineering, materials science and engineering, and biomedical engineering at UConn.
Laurencin’s seminal and singular accomplishments in tissue regeneration, biomaterials science, and nanotechnology, and regenerative engineering, a field he founded, have made him the foremost engineer-physician-scientist in the world. His breakthrough achievements have resulted in transformative advances in improving human life. His fundamental contributions to materials science and engineering include the introduction of nanotechnology into the biomaterials field for regeneration.
Laurencin has received singular honors in engineering, medicine, science and technology for his work. He is the first individual in history to receive both the oldest/highest award of the National Academy of Engineering (the Simon Ramo Founder’s Award) and one of the oldest/highest awards of the National Academy of Medicine (the Walsh McDermott Medal). The American Association for the Advancement of Science awarded Laurencin the Philip Hauge Abelson Prize given ‘for signal contributions to the advancement of science in the United States’. He is the recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, America’s highest honor for technological achievement, awarded by President Barack Obama in ceremonies at the White House
In recognition of his breakthrough achievements in Regenerative Engineering worldwide, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers created the Cato T. Laurencin Regenerative Engineering Founder’s Award.
The Academy is the Pan-European Academy of Sciences Humanities and Letters. The Academy’s members are scientists and scholars who collectively aim to promote learning, education and research. Founded in 1988, with more than 5,000 members which includes leading experts from the physical sciences and technology, biological sciences and medicine, mathematics, the letters and humanities, social and cognitive sciences, economics and the law. The Academy also publishes the international journal the European Review.
Academia Europaea advances and propagates excellence in scholarship in the humanities, law, the economic, social, and political sciences, mathematics, medicine, and all branches of natural and technological sciences anywhere in the world for the public benefit and for the advancement of the education of the public of all ages in the aforesaid subjects in Europe. The Academy includes seventy-two Nobel Laureates, several of whom were elected to the Academia before they received the prize.
“I would like to congratulate you on having been successful in the competitive membership election process,” wrote Marja Makarow, president of the Academia Europea in her award letter to Laurencin.
Laurencin’s election to the Academy will be honored at its October 2023 annual conference in Munich.
