Barbara Boyan, PhD, Price Gilbert, Jr. Chair in Tissue Engineering in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering and associate dean for research and innovation in the College of Engineering and Andrés García, PhD, Woodruff Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, were inducted as Fellows of Biomaterials Science and Engineering at the World Biomaterials Congress this week in Chengdu China.

Fellows are appointed based on significant contributions to the biomaterials field as well as national and international recognition of accomplishments documented by a continuous productivity in biomaterials research and are considered role models in the biomaterials science and engineering field.

The Fellows program began in1992 after the constituent biomaterials societies of the World Biomaterials Congress recognized the need for public recognition of their members who have gained a status of excellent professional standing and earned high achievements in the biomaterials field. For this reason, the honorary status of "Fellow, Biomaterials Science and Engineering" (FBSE) was established.

Boyan and García have had significant accomplishments throughout their careers which include receiving awards from the Society for Biomaterials, authoring papers in leading biomaterials journals and they both have several biomaterials-related patents and invention disclosures.

Boyan’s research laboratory focuses on bone and cartilage cell biology and tissue engineering of musculoskeletal tissues. Researchers are investigating signaling pathways involved in implant osseointegration, or the connection between the bone and a material. Specifically, they are exploring how surface properties influence biological processes and pathways such as cell proliferation, differentiation, angiogenesis and apoptosis to better understand healing and regeneration.

Boyan was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering and other 2012 awards include and the Orthopaedic Research Society Women's Leadership Forum Award and she was named a fellow of the International Team for Implantology.

García’s research activities center on analyses of cell adhesive forces and mechanotransduction, cell-biomaterial interactions and the engineering of biomaterials to control cell delivery and engraftment and tissue repair, including bone repair, therapeutic vascularization, pancreatic islet delivery for the treatment of diabetes, and inflammation and infection. These findings provide fundamental insights into mechanisms regulating cell-material interactions and constitute novel approaches to the engineering of bioactive materials for enhanced tissue repair.

García was awarded the Clemson Award for Basic Research from the Society of Biomaterials and will be presented with that award in New Orleans in October 2012. García serves on the editorial board of leading biomaterial and regenerative medicine journals as well as National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation review panels.