Announcing the 2024 Society Award Recipients!
Society For Biomaterials Announces its 2024 Award Recipients
SFB’s prestigious industry awards recognize outstanding achievement and contributions to the biomaterials field.
January 10, 2024, Mt. Laurel, NJ — The Society For Biomaterials (SFB), a multidisciplinary society of academic, healthcare, governmental and business professionals who are dedicated to promoting advancements in all aspects of biomaterials science, education, and professional standards to enhance human health and quality of life, recently announced its slate of 2024 award recipients.
The Society For Biomaterials is Proud to Present their 2024 Award Winners:
FOUNDERS AWARD:
Elazer R. Edelman, MD, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
This is awarded to an individual who has made a long-term, landmark contributionto the biomaterials discipline.
“Dr. Edelman couples modern biology with innovative science and engineering. He pioneered the rational development of endovascular stents, changing how these devices are designed, regulated and produced. The Center he directs has been formidable in its ability to move new ideas from conception to clinical practice. His work in basic biology, applied pharmacology and controlled drug delivery has already enabled stent-based drug delivery changing the practice of medicine and lives of millions.”
—Robert S. Langer, ScD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
C. WILLIAM HALL AWARD:
Mrignayani Kotecha, PhD, O2M Technologies, LLC
This award honors an industry and government member of the Society For Biomaterials who has made a significant contribution to the Society and has an outstanding record in establishing, developing, maintaining and promoting the objectives and goals of SFB.
“Dr. Kotecha’s and O2M’s development of the JIVA-25 EPROI instrument is impactful in many ways. It will allow developers of tissue engineered medical products (TEMPs) to monitor oxygen concentration throughout the interior of their product. The lack of a method to accurately map oxygen distribution in 3D constructs has been an issue since I joined the field in 1999.”
—Carl G. Simon Jr., PhD, NIST
SOCIETY FOR BIOMATERIALS AWARD FOR SERVICE:
L.D. Timmie Topoleski, PhD, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
This award honors significant service to the Society For Biomaterials in establishing, developing, maintaining and promoting its objectives and goals.
“It is my pleasure to propose Dr. Tim Topoleski for the 2024 SFB Award for Service. In fact, I do not know anyone for whom “Service” is written in their DNA as it is for Tim. And this shows in how he has served the Society over the years, in multiple positions. . . Tim has always been willing to take on "behind the scenes" positions and duties "with a smile." He actually very much enjoyed working behind the scenes and helping to make sure everything ran smoothly for the SFB members.”
—Paul Ducheyne, PhD, University of Pennsylvania
TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION AND DEVELOPMENT AWARD:
Mark R. Prausnitz, PhD, Georgia Institute of Technology
This award recognizes an individual’s (or a team’s) successful application of basic and applied biomaterials research in the development of a novel medical product or technology that significantly benefits the health and well-being of medical and surgical patients.
“Mark is a pre-eminent engineer developing technologies using novel biomaterials approaches to increase access to vaccines and pharmaceuticals and to improve their efficacy. He has made major research advances, founded multiple fields of science, and is translating his work from lab to clinic to products.”
—Krishnendu Roy, PhD, Vanderbilt University
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION AWARD:
LatinXinBME: Brian Aguado, PhD, University of California, San Diego and Ana Maria Porras, PhD, University of Florida
This award recognizes individuals or organizations promoting anti-racism and or creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for historically excluded groups in the STEM disciplines, especially in the field of biomaterials.
“LatinXinBME established the first online support community for Latinx biomedical engineers. This innovative new platform provided a support structure for this historically excluded group, tools for career development, and campaigns to increase visibility of Latinx scientists. The impact of this virtual program has been incredible, and they were asked to provide a template for other communities.”
—Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernández, PhD, The University of Texas at Austin
CLEMSON AWARD FOR APPLIED RESEARCH:
Natalie Artzi, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School; Wyss Institute at Harvard University; Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
This is awarded to an individual whose accomplishments include significant utilization or application of basic knowledge in science to achieve a specific goal in the field of biomaterials.
“Natalie’s contributions to the field of Bio(nano)materials are truly special. She has contributed substantially to several fields, deciphering basic science principles to inform the design of smart and responsive biomaterials with vast translation potential. . . Natalie is an out-of-the-box thinker, who is energetic and highly motivated. Her mindset is refreshing, and she is offering extremely innovative approaches to pharmaceutical development, engaging and inspiring others, including the next generation of diverse bioengineers.”
—Chad A. Mirkin, PhD, Northwestern University
CLEMSON AWARD FOR BASIC RESEARCH:
Joel H. Collier, PhD, Duke University
This is awarded to an individual who has made an original contribution to the basic knowledge and understanding of the interaction between materials and tissue.
“The peptide biomaterial systems developed by Professor Collier represent a new paradigm in non-inflammatory engineered biomaterials for applications ranging from vaccines to regenerative medicine. Professor Collier’s work combines deep immunology insights with creative molecular design to reveal the fundamental modes of surface presentation and biomolecular features that lead to nonimmunogenicity, tolerance, or immunogenicity of biomaterials.”
—Phillip B. Messersmith, PhD, Duke University
CLEMSON AWARD FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LITERATURE:
Tatiana Segura, PhD, Duke University
This is awarded to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the literature on the science or technology of biomaterials.
“Tatiana works in an important research area, generally described as the design of biomaterials to treat damaged tissues. Her work has resulted in over 110 publications in high quality journals in our field, such as Nature Materials, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Biomacromolecules, Integrative Biology, and Biomaterials. Tatiana has made significant contributions to research in at least 3 areas: biomaterial design, non-viral gene delivery, and therapeutic angiogenesis.”
—Lonnie D. Shea, PhD, University of Michigan
MID-CAREER AWARD:
Lesley Chow, PhD, Lehigh University
This award recognizes an individual SFB member who has demonstrated outstanding achievements in and / or contributions to the field of biomaterials research.
“Dr. Lesley Chow’s research broadly focuses on how structure-property relationships in biomaterials influence cell-material interactions and tissue formation. She has built a diverse, multidisciplinary research group centered on a core platform technology that enables fabrication of biomaterials with highly tunable spatial properties to direct tissue formation and organization. Her lab has published numerous publications, including key papers in top journals in the biomaterials field that showcase the versatility of their strategy.”
—Sarah E. Stabenfeldt, PhD, Arizona State University
YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD:
Mary Beth Monroe, PhD, Syracuse University
This award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated outstanding achievements in the field of biomaterials research.
“Dr. Monroe’s funding, publication, mentoring, and service records show the strong upward trajectory characteristic of rising stars in the biomaterials field and within SFB. Her research is focused on engineering new biomaterials systems to address unmet clinical needs in wound healing. . . Dr. Monroe is off to a fantastic start as a junior faculty member, and she brings tremendous creativity, energy, and enthusiasm to her research lab, teaching, mentorship activities, and service efforts. We expect her to continue to lead in these areas and to excel as a biomaterials scholar as she inspires those around her to lead as well.”
—SFB BioInterfaces Special Interest Group Awards Committee, Ashley Brown, Benjamin Keselowsky, Christopher Siedlecki
OUTSTANDING RESEARCH BY A HOSPITAL INTERN, RESIDENT, OR CLINICAL FELLOW AWARD
Asma Khursheed, Pennsylvania State University
This is awarded to hospital interns, residents, clinical fellows, medical students or individuals in equivalent positions who have shown outstanding achievement in biomaterials research.
Asma M. Khursheed: “Asma has independently worked on a sub-project looking at textured biomaterial surfaces and antibiotics in treating biofilms. Her work has significantly contributed to the project. We recognize Asma to be an outstanding medical student with excellent enthusiasm and self-motivation for research, strong scientific ability, diligence, and exceptional organizational skills, traits that are certainly necessary to complete a research project while in the first 2 years of medical school.”
—Lichong Xu, PhD and Christopher A. Siedlecki, PhD, Pennsylvania State University
STUDENT AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING RESEARCH | GRADUATE
Amreen Khan, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Ziyang Lan, The University of Texas at Austin
This is awarded to graduate and/or PhD students who have shown outstanding achievement in biomaterials research.
Amreen Khan: “Amreen works in collaboration with Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Regulatory Toxicology Department, and the Advanced Center for Treatment, Research, and Education in Cancer. She has skills in nanomedicine formulation, nanoparticle synthesis and characterization, solid-phase peptide synthesis, nanofibers development, microneedle-based MEMS drug delivery device fabrication, nanotheranostics, 3D printing, small molecules and peptide screening, in-vitro in-vivo assays and she further keeps nurturing herself in research.”
—Rohit Srivastava, PhD, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Ziyang Lan: “One notable aspect of Ziyang’s research was his development of new protocols that are able to rigorously characterize key features of wound healing including making custom devices to characterize exudate management, improved microbial activity assessment, and 3D printed foam fabrication devices to improve reproducibility.”
—Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernández, PhD, The University of Texas at Austin
STUDENT AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING RESEARCH | UNDERGRADUATE
Kaitlin Mrksich, University of Pennsylvania
This is awarded to undergraduate students who have shown outstanding achievement in biomaterials research.
“In Kaitlin’s independent projects, she has focused on probing the role of lipophilicity and chirality for LNP-mediated mRNA delivery. She has synthesized dozens of unique lipids, formulated these lipids into LNPs, and evaluated their potential for mRNA delivery in vivo and in primary T cells. She has been able to deduce structure-function relationships that help explain the role of lipid hydrophobicity in the delivery of mRNA by LNPs. Her findings have not only been instrumental in helping our lab design better LNPs but will also provide fundamental knowledge that will benefit all labs working on LNP technology.”
—Michael J. Mitchell, PhD, University of Pennsylvania