KEYNOTE Speakers
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Cato T. Laurencin, MD, PhD
University of Connecticut
2024 GOLD KEY AWARD -
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Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD
Baylor College of Medicine
2024 MCGOVERN AWARD -
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Adriana Bankston, PhD
AAAS/ASGCT
2024 MANTEL AWARD -
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Mercouri Kanatzidis
Northwestern University
2024 CHUBB AWARD -
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Paul S. Weiss
UCLA
2024 PROCTER PRIZE -
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César de la Fuente
University of Pennsylvania
2024 YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD
Cato T. Laurencin
University of Connecticut
2024 Gold Key Award
Keynote Session:
Regenerative Engineering: New Frontiers in Regeneration
Biography:
Cato T. Laurencin, MD, PhD, S.L.M.H., F.R.Eng., is the University Professor at the University of Connecticut (one of only two at the school). He is Professor of Chemical Engineering, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at UConn. He is the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery. He serves as the Chief Executive Officer of The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering at the University of Connecticut, and Institute created in his honor.
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Dr. Laurencin earned a B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University. He earned his M.D., Magna Cum Laude, from the Harvard Medical School, and received the Robinson Award for Surgery. He earned his Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was named a Hugh Hampton Young Fellow
Dr. Laurencin is the pioneer of the field of Regenerative Engineering. He is an expert in biomaterials science, stem cell technology and nanotechnology and has worked in the Convergence of these areas of research. In receiving the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, he was named as the world’s foremost engineer-physician-scientist.
He received the Founder’s Award (highest award) from the Society for Biomaterials, the James Bailey Award (highest award) from the Society for Biological Engineering, the BMES Robert A. Pritzker Award (highest award) from the Biomedical Engineering Society, and the Pierre Galletti Award (highest award) from the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He received the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, NIH’s highest and most prestigious research award, for his new field of Regenerative Engineering and the National Science Foundation’s Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation Grant Award. Dr. Laurencin is the Editor-in-Chief of Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine, published by Springer Nature, and is the Founder of the Regenerative Engineering Society. He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, a Fellow of the Materials Research Society, and a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society. He is an International Fellow in Biomaterials Science and Engineering, and a Fellow of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering.
Dr. Laurencin is the recipient of the Priestley Medal, the American Chemical Society’s highest honor, and the recipient of the Von Hippel Award, the Materials Research Society’s highest honor. He is the recipient of the Founders Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the Percy Julian Medal from the National Association of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers, their highest awards. The American Association for the Advancement of Science awarded Dr. Laurencin the Philip Hauge Abelson Prize given ‘for signal contributions to the advancement of science in the United States.’ In recognition of his breakthrough achievements in Regenerative Engineering worldwide, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers created the Cato T. Laurencin Regenerative Engineering Founder’s Award.
Dr. Laurencin is active in mentoring and in social justice. He received the Presidential Award for Excellence is Science, Math and Engineering Mentoring from President Barack Obama, the Beckman Award for Mentoring, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Mentor Award. He has received the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeon’s Diversity Award, the Biomedical Engineering Society’s Diversity Award, and the Society for Biomaterials Diversity Equity and Inclusion Award. Dr. Laurencin is the recipient of the 2020 Herbert W. Nickens Award of the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) recognizing his efforts in promoting social justice, equity, and fairness. He has described the IDEAL Path for achieving diversity—IDEAL representing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-Racism and Learning, recently adopted by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He is the recipient of the Hoover Medal, American engineering’s principal honor for humanitarian work. The Society for Biomaterials (SFB) created the Cato T. Laurencin Travelling Fellow Award for underrepresented students to attend SFB meetings in his honor.
Dr. Laurencin is an inventor. He was named the 2023 Inventor of the Year by the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation. He received the 2024 Kathryn S. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success from the American Chemical Society. He is the recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, America’s highest honor for technical achievement, awarded by President Barack Obama in ceremonies at the White House.
Peter J. Hotez
Baylor College of Medicine
2024 John P. McGovern Science and Society Award
Keynote Session:
Global Immunizations and the Antipoverty Vaccines: The Science vs. the Anti-science
Biography:
Dr. Hotez is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and professor of pediatrics and molecular virology & microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also the co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) and Texas Children’s Hospital endowed chair of tropical pediatrics. He has become widely recognized as one of the world’s leading minds in vaccine development and diplomacy.-
Dr. Hotez' CVD team at Texas Children’s has developed new vaccines for hookworm infection, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, and SARS/MERS/SARS-2 coronavirus. In December 2021, he co-led the development of low-cost recombinant protein COVID vaccine technologies for global health, resulting in emergency use authorization in India and Indonesia.
As both a vaccine scientist and autism parent, Dr. Hotez has emerged as one of the nation’s leading vaccine defenders against a growing national “antivax” threat. In 2022, along with his colleague Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for “work to develop and distribute a low-cost COVID-19 vaccine to people of the world without patent limitation.”
Adriana Bankston
ASGCT/AAAS
2024 Linda H. Mantel Next Generation Women’s Leadership Award
Keynote Session:
Advancing U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness through Scientific Research
Biography:
For nearly a decade, Bankston has worked to nurture U.S. competitiveness in science and technology through several roles with universities, non-profits and scientific societies. She will begin a new role this fall as the inaugural congressional policy fellow sponsored by the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) as part of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellowships Program (STPF).-
Over the past year, Bankston contributed to policy entrepreneurship with the Federation of American Scientists to make the work of policymakers more impactful and help realize the potential of landmark legislation by assisting the federal government in fostering innovation and U.S. competitiveness. In 2023, she served as Sigma Xi’s senior fellow in civic science & public policy, where she facilitated engagement of scientists in policymaking.
Bankston previously worked as a principal legislative analyst with University of California Federal Governmental Relations, where she advocated for the university’s research priorities with Congress, the administration and federal agencies. During this time, she drafted a STEM pipeline amendment which was included in the CHIPS and Science Act that was signed into law by President Joe Biden in August 2022.
Bankston’s long-standing leadership as a strong advocate for U.S. federally-funded research has led to a number of recognitions. In 2022, she received the inaugural ARIS Emerging Broader Impacts Leader Award for work on affecting science policy and advocacy, and for the importance of this work for the future STEM workforce. That same year, she also received the Top 20 Award for Excellence in Advocacy from the Advocacy Association, recognizing practitioners who excel in their profession.
Bankston holds a PhD in Biochemistry, Cell, and Developmental Biology from Emory University.
Mercouri Kanatzidis
Northwestern University
2024 Walston Chubb Award for Innovation
Keynote Session:
Unlocking the Potential of Halide Perovskites in Advancing Optoelectronic Devices
Biography:
Mercouri Kanatzidis earned his PhD in inorganic chemistry from the University of Iowa in 1984, following a Bachelor's degree in applied chemistry from Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University from 1985 to 1987.From 1987 to 2006, Dr. Kanatzidis held professorships at Michigan State University before joining Northwestern University in 2006 as a professor and senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory.
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Renowned for his groundbreaking work in halide perovskite materials, Dr. Kanatzidis pioneered the development of all-solid-state solar cells, significantly advancing photovoltaics. His research on coherent nanostructuring has revolutionized the understanding of energy conversion in materials, particularly in thermoelectric materials that convert heat into electricity.
Dr. Kanatzidis has received numerous prestigious awards and honors throughout his career, including the National Academy of Sciences in 2024, the Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023, the Global Energy Prize in 2022, and the Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher designation since 2015 in three disciplines: chemistry, physics, and materials science. Additionally, he was honored with the DOE Ten at Ten Scientific Ideas Award in 2019 for his groundbreaking work on all-solid-state solar cells and received the American Institute of Chemistry Chemical Pioneer Award in 2018.
Dr. Kanatzidis has mentored over 200 postgraduate and postdoctoral students, shaping the future of renewable energy science. In addition to his scientific contributions, he is dedicated to education and service, inspiring young scientists to excel in research.
Paul S. Weiss
UCLA
2024 William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement
Keynote Session:
From Moving Atoms to Medicine: Exploring the Nanoscale World
Biography:
Paul S. Weiss is a pioneering nanoscientist who studies the ultimate limits of miniaturization, exploring the atomic-scale chemical, physical, optical, mechanical, electronic, thermal, and spin properties of surfaces, interfaces, supramolecular, and biomolecular assemblies. He has developed and applied atomic-resolution scanning tunneling microscopes and spectroscopic imaging methods to measure the structure, function, and spectra of the smallest switches and motors in the world. To do so, he and his group also developed chemical patterning methods to place molecules and to control intermolecular interactions from the sub-Ångstrom to the centimeter scales. He applies these advances in many areas including quantum biology, quantum information, sensing, neuroscience, microbiome studies, tissue engineering, cellular therapies, and high-throughput gene editing.
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Weiss has won awards in science, engineering, teaching, publishing, and communications, including the IEEE Nanotechnology Pioneer Award and Guggenheim and Sloan Fellowships. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the leading nanoscience journal ACS Nano. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Chemical Society, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, American Physical Society, American Vacuum Society, Canadian Academy of Engineering, Chemical Research Society of India, Chinese Chemical Society, IEEE, Materials Research Society, and National Academy of Inventors.
He holds a UC Presidential Chair and is a distinguished professor of chemistry & biochemistry, bioengineering, and materials science & engineering at UCLA. He previously served as the director of the California NanoSystems Institute and held the Fred Kavli Chair in NanoSystems Sciences at UCLA. He received his SB and SM degrees in chemistry from MIT and PhD from UC Berkeley. He continued his training at Bell Labs and IBM Almaden. Before coming to UCLA, he was a distinguished professor of chemistry and physics at the Pennsylvania State University, where he began his academic career as an assistant professor. He holds visiting appointments at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and universities in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, and South Korea. He is a serial entrepreneur and a vocal advocate for nanoscience, frequently giving public lectures and consulting on television shows, movies, and games.
César de la Fuente
University of Pennsylvania
2024 Young Investigator Award
Keynote Session:
A.I. for Antibiotic Discovery
Biography:
César de la Fuente is a Presidential Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he leads the Machine Biology Group. He completed postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and earned a PhD from the University of British Columbia (UBC). His research goal is to use the power of machines to accelerate discoveries in biology and medicine. Specifically, he pioneered the development of the first computer-designed antibiotic with efficacy in animal models, demonstrating the application of AI for antibiotic discovery and helping launch this emerging field.
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His lab has also been in the vanguard of developing computational methods to mine the world’s biological information, leading to the breakthrough discovery of a whole new world of antimicrobials. These efforts explored the human proteome as a source of antibiotics for the first time. De la Fuente’s group was also the first to find therapeutic molecules in extinct organisms, launching the field of molecular de-extinction.
De la Fuente has received over 70 national and international awards. Most recently, he was awarded the prestigious Princess of Girona Prize, the ASM Award for Early Career Applied and Biotechnological Research, the Rao Makineni Lectureship Award by the American Peptide Society, and was selected as a National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine.
He has co-authored an influential book on machine learning for drug discovery and his scientific discoveries have yielded multiple patents and over 150 publications, including papers in Science, Cell, Cell Host Microbe, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Communications, PNAS, ACS Nano, Nature Chemical Biology, and Advanced Materials.