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The winner of the 2022 George Winter Award is Professor Abhay Pandit. The George Winter award was established to recognize, encourage and stimulate outstanding research contributions to the field of biomaterials.
Professor Abhay Pandit is the Established Professor in Biomaterials. He is the Director of a Science Foundation Ireland funded Centre for Research in Medical Devices (CÚRAM) at the the National University of Ireland, Galway. He obtained a PhD from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where his postgraduate work focused on the modification of a fibrin scaffold to deliver a therapeutic biomolecule and resulted in a clinical trial at the Burn Centre.
Professor Abhay Pandit has over twenty-five years of experience in the field of biomaterials. After a seven-year stint in industry he has worked in academia for the last twelve years. His research is funded by Science Foundation Ireland, the 7th EU Framework programme, Enterprise Ireland, Health Research Board, the AO Foundation and industry sources, and in excess of €78 million. He is the author of 4 patents and has licensed three technologies to medical device companies. He has published more than 180 manuscripts in high-impact factor publications.
Professor Abhay Pandit was inducted as an International Fellow in Biomaterials Science and Engineering by the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering (IUSBSE). He has been elected as a Council Member of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine and the International Society and European Society for Biomaterials.
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The winner of the 2022 Jean Leray Award is Doctor Khoon Lim. The Jean Leray award was established to recognise, encourage and stimulate outstanding research contributions to the field of biomaterials by early-career scientists.
Associate Professor Khoon Lim is a biomedical engineer with specialization in polymer chemistry. His research focus is on adopting a class of polymers known as hydrogels as tissue engineering matrices for a variety of applications. His research technology platform involves photo-polymerizable hydrogel bioinks for 3D bioprinting of functional tissues and also delivery of bioactive molecules to promote tissue regeneration. He has been awarded a total of >$4.5M research grant funding ($3.5M as PI). He is also involved in a number of collaborative projects involving national and international collaborators (Germany, Netherlands, Australia, China and Scotland).
Associate Professor Khoon Lim is also Council member – New Zealand Association of Scientists; Vice President – Australasian Society for Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering (ASBTE); Editorial Board member: Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express (IOP Science); Editorial Board member: Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine; Associate Editor: Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology; Guest Editor: Biofabrication, Acta Biomaterialia, Advanced Healthcare Materials; Web and Membership sub-committee member – International Society for Biofabrication
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The winner of the 2022 International Award is Professor Joachim Kohn. The International award was established as a recognition of scientists who have generally spent their career outside Europe, who have been internationally recognized, have a high scientific profile, and have made major contributions to the field of biomaterials.
Professor Kohn is the Director of the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials, an interdisciplinary research center - based at Rutgers - the State University of New Jersey - that spans academia, industry and government. Professor Joachim Kohn leads a scientific staff of approximately thirty research faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students, with expertise in chemistry and chemical engineering, material science, biomedical engineering, cellular and molecular biology, animal studies, and computational technology. Support comes from multiple grants generously provided by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense. His research topics : Design and synthesis of innovative biomaterials, the effect of material properties on cell behavior, biocompatibility, development of medical implants and devices for drug delivery and regenerative medicine.
The Kohn Lab has furthered the field of tissue engineering by creating the first combinatorial library of polymers in which the chemical, mechanical and physical properties can be varied incrementally and predictably. In addition to basic studies, his lab has helped to translate our technologies into clinical or pre-clinical products, including surgical meshes, cardiovascular stents, bone regeneration scaffolds, and ocular drug delivery systems. The ultimate goal is to increase the number of viable biomaterials candidates and to accelerate their development into medical devices that alleviate the pain and suffering of patients throughout the world.
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The winner of the 2022 Klaas de Groot Award is Professor Rui Reis. The Klaas de Groot award was established as a prestigious recognition of scientists who have shown a distinct ability to provide excellent mentorship and guidance to young researchers, helping them to establish their own independent career.
Professor Rui L. Reis is President of I3Bs (Research Institute on Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics), Founding Director of the 3B´s Research Group, Director of the ICVS/3B´s Associate Laboratory (PT Government Associate Laboratory), Full Professor of Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells, Dept. of Polymer Engineering, School of Engineering, U. Minho. He is also CEO of the European Institute of Excellence on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, President/Chairman and Chief Scientific officer of Stemmatters, Editor in Chief of the Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Wiley-Blackwell, and Director of the PhD program on Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells of University of Minho. He is in the board of several companies and associations. He was from 2017 to 2019 the President of TECMINHO, the technology transfer office of University of Minho.
Professor Rui L. Reis has been involved in biomaterials research since 1990. His main area of research is the development of biomaterials from natural origin polymers for a range of biomedical applications, including different medical devices, bone replacement and fixation, biodegradable stents and drug eluting stents, drug delivery carriers, partially degradable bone cements and tissue engineering scaffolding. In the last two decades the research of his group has been increasingly focused on tissue engineering (TE), regenerative and precision medicine, stem cells and drug delivery applications. His research group has been working on the engineering of bone, cartilage, osteochondral, skin, intervertebral discs, meniscus, tendons and ligaments, liver and neurological tissues regeneration, as well as on TE approaches for different 3D disease models, including different cancer models, and therapies for diabetes and Alzheimer.
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