Society Awards 2018

The H.R. Lissner Medal recognizes outstanding achievements in the field of bioengineering. These achievements may be in the form of: (1) significant research contributions in bioengineering; (2) development of new methods of measuring in bioengineering; (3) design of new equipment and instrumentation in bioengineering; (4) educational impact in the training of bioengineers; and/or (5) service to the bioengineering community, in general, and to the Bioengineering Division of ASME, in particular. The Bioengineering Division of ASME established the H. R. Lissner Award as a divisional award in 1977. It was upgraded to a society award in 1987, made possible by a donation from Wayne State University and is named in honor of Professor H. R. Lissner of Wayne State University for his pioneering work in biomechanics that began in 1939.

Dr. Lou Soslowsky received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and began his faculty career at the University of Michigan in 1991. In 1997, he joined the University of Pennsylvania where he is the Fairhill Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Professor of Bioengineering, Vice Chair for Research (Orthopedic Surgery), Founding Director of the campus-wide Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders, which is the longest running NIH sponsored Center of its kind in the country, and Associate Dean for Research Integration. For 18 years, he was the Director of the McKay Orthopedic Research Laboratory. He has won many awards including the Fung Young Investigator Award, the Neer Award, the Hughston Award, the Kappa Delta Award, and the ORS Outstanding Mentor Award. He is a Fellow of ASME and AIMBE and a Past Chair of the ASME Bioengineering Division. He completed the Whitaker Foundation Academic Leadership Program. Lou is a bioengineer who seeks to understand and uncover etiologic factors and pathologic mechanisms driving injury, healing, repair, and regeneration of tendons and ligaments and to use this information to develop and evaluate treatment modalities. His innovative model systems have become the standard for such studies world-wide. He has authored more than 200 research articles.

The Van C. Mow Medal is bestowed upon an individual who has made significant contributions to the field of bioengineering through research, education, professional development, leadership in the development of the professor, as a mentor to young bioengineers, and with service to the bioengineering community. The individual must have earned a Ph.D. or equivalent degree between ten and twenty years prior to June 1 of the year of the award. The award was established by the Bioengineering Division in 2004.

Jeff Holmes is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medicine at the University of Virginia. He obtained his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 1989, his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego in 1995, and his M.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 1998. His first faculty position was at Columbia University, where he helped found and build a new Biomedical Engineering department. In 2007, Dr. Holmes moved to the University of Virginia, where he currently serves as the founding Director of the Center for Engineering in Medicine. His laboratory studies the interactions between mechanics, function, and growth and remodeling in the heart, using a combination of computational and experimental models. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the American Heart Association, the Whitaker Foundation, the Coulter Foundation, the Hartwell Foundation, and the Allen Foundation. Dr. Holmes was awarded the Y. C. Fung Young Investigator Award in 2005, an American Heart Association Established Investigator Award in 2006, and is a Fellow of the American Heart Association, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

The Y. C. Fung Young Investigator Award is given to a young investigator who is under age 36 on or before June 1 of the year of the nomination and has received a Ph.D. or equivalent bioengineering degree within seven years prior to their nomination. The individual must be committed to pursuing research in and have demonstrated significant potential to make substantial contributions to the field of bioengineering. Such accomplishments may take the form of, but are not limited to, design or development of new methods, equipment or instrumentation in bioengineering, and research publications in peer-reviewed journals. The award was established by the Bioengineering Division in 1985 and operated as a division award until 1998 when it was elevated to a Society award.

Spencer P. Lake is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Biomedical Engineering and Orthopedic Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis. He received a BS in Bioengineering from the University of Utah, where he performed research with Dr. Jeffrey A. Weiss. He earned a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania under the mentorship of Dr. Louis J. Soslowsky, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Minnesota with Dr. Victor H. Barocas. Since 2012, he has been the director of the Musculoskeletal Soft Tissue Lab. His research focuses on multiscale structure–function relationships of musculoskeletal soft tissues and joints. His work has (1) developed new model systems to study challenging clinical conditions like elbow injury and joint contracture, (2) designed experimental methods to elucidate multiscale/multiaxial tendon mechanics, and (3) advanced imaging techniques to quantify real-time microstructural organization of connective tissues under load. Dr. Lake's research has resulted in over 50 journal articles and more than 100 conference abstracts, and has been funded by the NIH, NSF, and several research foundations. He is the recipient of the 2016 Donald G. Fink Award from IEEE and the 2017 Early Career Award from the Journal of Orthopedic Research.

The Savio L.-Y. Woo Translational Biomechanics Medal was established in June 2015 as a society-level award and recognizes a sustained level of meritorious contributions in translating bioengineering research to clinical application, to improve the quality of life. This award is named in honor of Savio Lau-Yuen Woo, Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor of Bioengineering and the Founder and Director of the Musculoskeletal Research Center (MSRC), a diverse multidisciplinary research and educational center in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Beyond pioneering and world-renowned scholarly contributions, Professor Woo has made an enormous impact in 40 years of translational research that has significantly contributed to the delivery of healthcare. Any member of ASME who has demonstrated a sustained level of outstanding achievement in translating bioengineering findings to the clinical community may be eligible for this medal.

Kyriacos A. Athanasiou is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, CA. He has established one of the most recognized research groups in bioengineering, specializing in the musculoskeletal system. He has published over 335 peer-reviewed articles, 316 conference proceedings and abstracts, a textbook on “continuum biomechanics,” four tissue engineering books, the book “articular cartilage,” and 31 U.S. patents. His pioneering and extensive work in tissue engineering has addressed the important goal of cartilage healing. In terms of service, he is past president of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) and has served on the BMES board of directors. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Biomedical Engineering, the flagship journal of BMES. Professor Athanasiou's success is not merely academic. Five companies with a total of 15 FDA-approved products have been founded on discoveries within his group and now produce widely used medical products; two of these companies have been acquired by large medical companies.

The Robert M. Nerem Education and Mentorship Medal is given to an individual who has demonstrated a sustained level of outstanding achievement in education and mentoring of trainees. Examples of meritorious activities include leadership within the nominee's institution, mentoring activities that are above and beyond those expected from others employed in similar positions, mentoring activities tailored to meet the needs of the trainees, and innovative mentoring activities. Any member of ASME with a Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree in any field of engineering, physics, medicine, or life sciences is eligible for the award. The award was established by the Bioengineering Division in 2017.

Roger D. Kamm is currently the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where he has served on the faculty since 1978. Roger has long been instrumental in growing research activities at the interface of biology and mechanics, in molecular mechanics, and now in engineered living systems. In education, he was a co-recipient of the class of 1960 award in 1999 and received the Everett Moore Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Student mentoring has been a high priority, and 35 of Dr. Kamm's former students are now in faculty positions around the world. Dr. Kamm has fostered biomechanics as Chair of the U.S. National Committee on Biomechanics (2006–2009) and of the World Council on Biomechanics (2006–2010). He co-initiated a series of meetings on Frontiers of Biomechanics, chaired the ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference (2001), and organized a Summit of Experts on Biomechanics (2007) and a Workshop on Engineered Living Systems (2016). In 2014, Roger co-chaired the World Congress of Biomechanics. He is the 2010 recipient of the ASME Lissner Medal and the 2015 recipient of the Huiskes Medal, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.