Cato T. Laurencin, the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor at the University of Connecticut, will receive the 2023 Priestley Medal, the highest honor of the American Chemical Society. He is recognized as the leading international figure in polymeric biomaterials chemistry and engineering who has made extraordinary scientific contributions, while at the same time he has had profound contributions to improving human health. Dr. Laurencin has had breakthrough achievements in the areas of materials chemistry and engineering of soft tissue implants for regeneration of tissue including the development of the Laurencin-Cooper Ligament for anterior cruciate ligament regeneration in the knee.
Dr. Laurencin is the former dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Connecticut. In 2016, he was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Dr. Laurencin is the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. He is the author of Success Is What You Leave Behind: Fostering Leadership and Innovation (Academic Press, 2021).
Dr. Laurencin is a graduate of Princeton University, where he majored in chemical engineering. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Medical School and holds a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering and biotechnology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
