UConn Health

November 26, 2013 | Christopher DeFrancesco '95 (CLAS) - UConn Health

Dr. Cato Laurencin Named to Prestigious Scientific Fellowship

Laurencin will be inducted as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Feb. 15 in Chicago.

Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Cato T. Laurencin of the UConn Health Center has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Photo by Lanny Nagler.,

Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Cato T. Laurencin of the UConn Health Center has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (Lanny Nagler for UConn Health Center)

Dr. Cato T. Laurencin, a world-renowned physician scientist at the UConn Health Center, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The AAAS elected Laurencin “for international leadership in biomaterials sciences and engineering, for the development of revolutionary technologies in musculoskeletal regeneration, and for extraordinary work in mentoring.”

Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. This year’s fellows will be formally announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science Friday, Nov. 29.

Laurencin holds the distinct UConn titles of University Professor and Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery. He also is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, materials science and engineering, and biomedical engineering. He is the director of the UConn Health Center’s Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Biomedical, Biological, Physical and Engineering Sciences, founding director of the Health Center’s Institute for Regenerative Engineering, and Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science.

Laurencin is an elected member of both the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Engineering. He is an International Fellow in Biomaterials Science and Engineering, and an elected member of both the World Academy of Sciences and the African Academy of Sciences. He has patented and invented new technologies for bone and soft tissue regeneration, including the L-C Ligament, now in human clinical trials. He has mentored a generation of students in medicine and biomedical engineering for which he was honored with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Math and Engineering Mentoring in ceremonies at the White House in 2010. This year, Laurencin received the 2012 AAAS Mentor Award in recognition for his contributions.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals.

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