The Gold Key Award is the Society’s highest honor, presented to a member who has made extraordinary scientific contributions and fostered critical innovations to enhance the health of the research enterprise, cultivated integrity in research, and/or worked to promote the public understanding of science for the purpose of improving the human condition. In addition to receiving the award, Laurencin will also be the keynote speaker at the International Forum on Research Excellence, Sigma Xi’s annual conference in Washington, D.C.
Laurencin is well known internationally for his work in science, engineering, and medicine. He is the founder of the field of Regenerative Engineering. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He received the Priestley Medal, the American Chemical Society’s highest honor, and the Von Hippel Award, the highest honor of the Materials Research Society. In receiving the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, he was named the world’s foremost engineer-physician-scientist.
Laurencin is a creator of innovative technologies. He received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, America’s highest honor for technological achievement in ceremonies at the White House. He was named the 2023 Inventor of the Year by the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation and is the 2024 recipient of the Kathryn C. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success by the American Chemical Society.
“Dr. Laurencin embodies excellence through his research and his leadership,” said Jamie Vernon, Sigma Xi Executive Director and CEO. “We are thrilled to recognize Dr. Laurencin with Sigma Xi’s highest honor for his pioneering work in regenerative engineering of musculoskeletal tissues and for his critical efforts to promote diversity in science and engineering.”
Laurencin is the Chief Executive Officer of The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering, an Institute created in his honor at the University of Connecticut. He is professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and professor of Biomedical Engineering at UConn. He is the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery. He earned a B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, an M.D., magna cum laude, from the Harvard Medical School, and a Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
