On Aug. 23 UConn School of Medicine celebrated its incoming medical students in the Class of 2028 with the traditional annual White Coat Ceremony.

The Class of 2028 has 112 new students selected from over 4,600 applications.  Eighty-one percent of the students are from Connecticut, and 32% earned their undergraduate degrees at the University of Connecticut.

The excitement of the incoming class beginning their four-year medical school journey at UConn Health was in the air and upon the smiling faces of these future doctors-to-be, along with their families, and the School of Medicine faculty set to train them.

One of our own students, Marc Merriman Jr., says “My white coat feels amazing […] I am looking forward to my first interactions with patients. UConn puts a lot of focus on the importance of medical students early-exposure to patient care experiences.” For the last two years before medical school, he’s served as a scholar in the Young Innovative Investigator Program (YIIP). It is a unique and intensive 2-year program of the Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering.

“I like research,” says Merriman who had the exciting opportunity to assist Laurencin and his lab in its major limb regeneration research underway in the Hartford Engineering a Limb Project (HEAL).

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Named in honor of a distinguished member of the Society for Biomaterials, the Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D. Travel Fellowship supports underrepresented undergraduate students studying the field of biomaterials.  The Fellowship provides the resources needed to attend the annual meeting of the Society for Biomaterials, and to become a member of the Biomaterials Society. The goal of this initiative is to stimulate/encourage recipients to pursue a career in biomaterials.

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At the World Biomaterials Congress, Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D., united with Royal Academy of Engineering fellows Serena Best, Ph.D., Dame Molly Stevens, Ph.D., and Dame Elizabeth Tanner, D.Phil., Ph.D., while in Daegu, South Korea. An accomplished group, these four have made immense contributions to the field of engineering in Biomedical Materials and Engineering.

The Royal Academy of Engineering, originally called the Fellowship of Engineering, was founded in 1976 and has since then championed excellence in all fields of engineering and honoring the most distinguished engineers within the United Kingdom and around the world.

At the World Biomaterials Congress in Daegu, South Korea, Springer Nature hosted their own exhibition booth to promote various journals and publications, including Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine, where Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D., is editor-in-chief.

As a promotional event for the RETM Journal, Springer Nature held a Meet and Greet reception where guests were able to speak with Dr. Laurencin and ask questions about his work.

University Professor Cato T. Laurencin, chief executive officer of The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering and the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Connecticut, will be inducted into The Plastics Hall of Fame.

The Plastics Hall of Fame is the ultimate recognition for a lifetime body of work of an individual whose dedication and exceptional achievements have contributed to the growth and prominence of the industry on a global scale. The induction ceremony will take place May 5 in Orlando, Florida.

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