Barbara Boyan
After receiving her B.A. in Biology at Rice University, Barbara went on to earn her Ph.D. in Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology at Rice in 1975. Dr. Boyan is now a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where she holds the Price Gilbert, Jr. Chair in Tissue Engineering. She is also an adjunct professor in the Departments of Orthopaedics and Cell Biology at Emory University Medical School as well as the Schools of Biology and Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and she has an adjunct professorship in Periodontics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. Boyan is a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and Deputy Director of Research at the Georgia Tech-Emory Center for the Engineering of Living Tissue.

Dr. Boyan has demonstrated collaborative leadership in the emerging interdisciplinary field of tissue engineering in both academic and business domains. Dr. Boyan co-chairs the Preclinical Assessments subcommittee of the Tissue Engineered Medical Products F04 Division of ASTM. She has served as chair of the Orthopaedic Device Panel of the United States Food and Drug Administration and presently serves on the National Materials Advisory Board for the National Academies in the United States. Dr. Boyan also presently serves on the Boards of Directors of two NASDAQ companies: ArthroCare, Inc., and IsoTis, Inc., an orthobiologics company. In 1993, she co-founded OsteoBiologics, Inc. to develop tissue engineered medical products for treatment of bone and cartilage defects. The first generation of these products is now approved for use clinically both in the US and Europe and OsteoBiologics has been acquired by Smith & Nephew, Inc., an international medical device company. Dr. Boyan is also founder of Biomedical Development Corporation and Orthonics, Inc., which was recently acquired by Carticept Medical, Inc. In 2007, she co-founded SpherIngenics, Inc., which is developing technology invented at Georgia Tech.

Her research program is focused on bone and cartilage cell biology in the fields of orthopaedics and oral health. The author of more than 340 peer-reviewed papers, reviews, and book chapters, Dr. Boyan holds eight U.S. and international patents. She received the 2002 Clemson Award for Contributions to the Literature from the Society for Biomaterials for her research into cell response to material surfaces such as those used in implants and tissue engineering. She is particularly well known for her advancements in the area of rapid responses to steroid hormones; our understanding of how biomaterials affect cell and tissue behavior; and our recognition that inherent differences in cells from male and female donors may have a significant impact on the development of effective cell-based therapies.

Dr. Boyan has been instrumental in encouraging numerous women and men in their pursuit of academic and scientific careers. Her curriculum vita includes an impressive list of current and former advisees, and she has mentored and advised countless other undergraduate and graduate students, post doctoral fellows, and junior faculty. In 2000, she was recognized with the American Association for Dental Research Student Research Group Mentor Award. In addition, she promotes science and science education through her active participation in groups such as Leadership Texas and Leadership America, and she was the 2005 recipient of Atlanta Woman Magazine