Materials research society (MRS) Vice President/President-Elect, Kristi S. Anseth, has been named recipient of the 2015 Bayer Distinguished Lectureship by the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering. Anseth is the Tisone Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, associate professor of surgery, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at the University of Colorado-Boulder Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. She will serve as MRS President in 2016.

The Bayer Distinguished Lectureship is presented annually by the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, and recognizes outstanding excellence in chemical education, outreach and research. The lecture is sponsored by Bayer MaterialScience. Anseth will present lectures on Thursday, April 23 at 5:00 pm with a reception following, and Friday, April 24 at 9:30 am. Both lectures will be presented in Benedum Hall Room 102, 3700 O’Hara Street. Parking is limited.

“Dr. Anseth is one of the elite researchers bridging biology, chemistry and engineering, and our department is honored that she would accept this award,” said Steven R. Little, CNG Faculty Fellow and chair of the Swanson School’s Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. “Her research is helping to advance the fields of biomaterials and tissue engineering, especially with regard to medical applications such as artificial valves and cartilage. We look forward to hearing her presentations.”

Anseth has a strong commitment to MRS and its activities. She has served as a symposia organizer at multiple MRS Spring and Fall Meetings, presided as a meeting chair for the 2009 MRS Fall Meeting and was elected to the MRS Board of Directors in 2003, where she also served as chair of the strategic planning committee. Anseth has been recognized with the MRS Outstanding Young Investigator Award (2001) and the inaugural Mid-Career Research Award (2012). She was elected MRS Vice President/President-Elect in January. Her history of service to MRS, along with a breadth of interactions with scientists and engineers from diverse backgrounds, will provide a unique perspective as MRS President in 2016.

Anseth earned her B.S. from Purdue University in the lab of noted researcher Nicholas A. Peppas, and PhD from the University of Colorado under the direction of Christopher Bowman. Her primary research is the design of synthetic hydrogel biomaterials that replicate the extracellular matrix surrounding living cells, creating scaffolds for the growth of new tissue. In 1999, she was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35. She has filed for 18 patents, and published more than 250 research articles, and in 2003, she and her students were the first to successfully develop an injectable and biodegradable scaffold to regenerate cartilage.

She was the first engineer selected as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, which includes 17 Nobel laureates and 172 members of the National Academy of Sciences. Her other awards include the Hazel Barnes Award, University of Colorado (2013); Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award, Purdue University (2012); Distinguished Research Lecturer, University of Colorado (2011); Professional Progress Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers (2009); named one of the ‘Brilliant 10’ Scientists by Popular Science (2008) and one of the “One Hundred Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era,” by AIChE (2008); Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award, Research and Teaching, University of Colorado (2008); Clemson Award for Basic Research, Society for Biomaterials (2008); Alan T. Waterman Award, National Science Foundation (2004);  Allan P. Colburn Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers (2003); Curtis W. McGraw Award, American Society for Engineering Education (2003); and the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering (1997). Anseth is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Sciences.