Professor Cato Laurencin ‘80 is the 2009 winner of the Pierre Galletti Award, the highest honor bestowed annually by the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Dr. Laurencin is being recognized “for seminal contributions to tissue engineering and leadership in international biomedical engineering”. Dr. Laurencin, the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Chair in Academic Medicine, is the Vice President of Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Connecticut. He is also a Distinguished Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Chemical, Materials and Biomolecular Engineering. In November 2008, Professor Cato Laurencin was named by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers as one of “100 Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era”.