The fellowship, presented through the Society for Biomaterials, supports under-represented minority students in the field of biomaterials.

The winners of the Cato T. Laurencin Travel Fellowships will be recognized at the Annual Society for Biomaterials (SFB) meeting in April. Awardees are Kai Clarke of the Florida Institute of Technology and Sydney Wimberley, a Chemical Engineering major here at the University of Connecticut.

Dr. Cato Laurencin, for whom the Fellowship is named, is well known for his commitment to mentoring. Along with membership in the SFB, Kai Clarke and Sydney Wimberley will receive a grant for participation in the SFB Annual Meeting which covers all travel costs. Attending allows students to meet with distinguished and seasoned scientists in the field, hear from state-of-the-art speakers, learn about industry advancements, and also offers networking opportunities for students to discuss potential internships.

These Travel Fellowships are made possible by grants from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, National Institute of Health, and SFB member donations. For more information, visit the Society for Biomaterials website. Read more about the UConn awardee in UConn Today.

The CT Convergence Center for Translation in Regenerative Engineering is pleased to announce that a member of our Institute, Leila Daneshmandi (a Ph.D Student from Biomedical Engineering) has earned a 1st place award in the 5th Annual UConn School of Engineering Poster Competition.

The competition, which was open to graduate students from all engineering departments, included two rounds of judging.

In the first round, participants presented to faculty members within their own department and were judged among peers in that department. Leila won first place for the Biomedical Engineering Department based on feedback from judges Dr. Ki Chon (department head) and Dr. Kristin Morgan. For the next round, advancing participants presented to a team of industrial professionals with broad technology entrepreneurship experience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leila’s project “PLGA-Graphene Oxide Matrices for Bone Regenerative Engineering” won the first place prize of $1,000 in the final round. Leila Daneshmandi is pictured below with her award presented by Kevin Arpin, Forensic Specialist from Travelers Institute, Kathy Rocha, Managing Director of UConn’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Consortium, and Kevin Bouley, President and CEO of Nerac.

 

Congratulations to Leila Daneshmandi!

March Science Cafe: Pain Management in Connecticut: Challenges, Innovations & Research

The CT Convergence Institute supports a summer research and mentoring program which hosts students of varying levels in an engaging summer research immersion experience. Dr. Kevin Lo, the Director of the program, traveled to Washington D.C  along with several previous participants to attend a conference which highlighted the success of these programs.

 

 

Left to right: Dr. Kevin Lo, Savon Vigil, Nina Sowah, Guleid Awale, and Jolene Addi.

 

UConn alum, Dr. Deborah Dorcemus, visited the Connecticut Convergence Institute to talk to students about her industry experience.

These types of visits give students a broad perspective of the types of career paths available in their chosen fields.

 

 

With the support of the CT Convergence Institute, the UConn chapter of the

National Academy of Inventors (NAI)

recently hosted speaker Eric Hintz, Ph.D.

Dr. Hintz is a historian from the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. He discussed three centuries worth of innovation and inventorship from the Hartford area. The free event was held at the Mark Twain House in Hartford, and was attended by many community members and local entrepreneurs, in addition to UConn students, faculty and staff.

Attendees enjoy refreshments prior to the lecture “Ingenious Yankees: Three Centuries of Innovation in Hartford” Dr. Cato Laurencin, Dr. Mostafa Analoui, Dr. Eric Hintz from the Smithsonian, Dr. Lakshmi Nair, and Dr. Gualberto Ruano

The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently posted the above quote from Dr. Cato Laurencin on Instagram. Dr. Laurencin was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (NMTI) in 2014 for his work in the engineering of musculoskeletal tissues. The NMTI is the nation’s top honor for invention. Currently, Dr. Laurencin is on a committee to help select the next NMTI awardee.

 

 

The American Association for the Advancement of Science awarded Dr. Cato Laurencin the prestigious Philip Hauge Abelson Prize on February 14, 2019 at a ceremony in Washington D.C.

Former AAAS President, Susan Hockfield, presented the award to Dr. Cato Laurencin.

Pictured: Rush D. Holt, AAAS CEO, Margaret Hamburg, AAAS President, and Dr. Cato Laurencin (Photo by: Robb Cohen Photography & Video)

 

The Abelson prize is named in honor of American physicist, scientific editor, and science writer Philip Hauge Abelson. The award was established in 1985 by the AAAS Board of Directors to be given to one who has made significant contributions to the advancement of science in the United States.

Dr. Laurencin was recognized for his innovative research, his contributions to national policies regarding science, and for his dedication to supporting diversity in the field.  Feel free to watch the award ceremony video, or read more about this distinguished recognition for Dr. Laurencin in UConn Today.