Cato T. Laurencin

Cato T. Laurencin
Residence	USA
Citizenship	USA
Nationality	USA
Fields	Surgeon, Professor
Institutions	University of Connecticut, University of Virginia
Alma mater	Harvard University, Princeton University, MIT, Central High School of Philadelphia (235)

Cato T. Laurencin (born 1959), a professor and a surgeon, served as the Dean of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and the Vice President for Health Affairs at the University of Connecticut from 2008 - 2011. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science, the Director of the Institute for Regenerative Engineering, and the Director of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Biomedical, Biological, Physical, and Engineering Sciences at the University of Connecticut.

He is one of only 3 practicing orthopaedic surgeons in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Laurencin was the first Orthopaedic Surgeon to achieve University Professor level rank in the country. He is the first surgeon in the US to be elected to the Third World Academy of Sciences (of the six US members elected in the last two years, one third are Nobel prize winners). Dr. Laurencin is a member of both the Institutes of Medicine and the National Academies of Engineering.

Education

Laurencin grew up in North Philadelphia and graduated from Central High School. Laurencin earned his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University and his medical degree from Harvard Medical school where he was a magna cum laude graduate. During his medical school, he also earned his Ph.D in biochemical engineering from the MIT.

Career

Laurencin joined the University of Connecticut Health Center from the University of Virginia where he was the Lillian T. Pratt Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, as well as the Orthopaedic Surgeon-in-Chief at the University of Virginia Health System. In addition, he was designated as a University Professor at the University of Virginia, one of the university’s most prestigious titles, and held professorships in Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering.

Prior to his service at the University of Virginia, Laurencin was at Drexel University School of Medicine and Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia where he served as the Helen I. Moorehead Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering, Vice Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Director of Shoulder Surgery.

He holds the Van Dusen Endowed Chair in Academic Medicine and is a professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Connecticut.

He is one of only 3 practicing orthopaedic surgeons in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Laurencin won the Nicolas Andry Prize (highest award from the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons). It is considered a lifetime achievement award of the profession. He was named to the IOM Round table on Evidence Based Medicine (his specific designation on the round table is representing the interests of all physician providers).

He serves on the editorial board of 17 journals and his work was recently honored by Scientific American Magazine as one of the 50 greatest achievements in science this past year. In addition, in 2009, he was named as one of the 100 engineers of the modern era by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Most recently, he was honored by Black Enterprise magazine in its American's Leading Doctors edition. The Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), an historically black university, awarded him an honorary Ph.D. in science.

Books and publications

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