Faculty Awards

Sharon Gerecht Sharon Gerecht, director of the INBT, Kent Gordon Croft Investment Management Faculty Scholar, and professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was among 90 new members selected to join the National Academy of Medicine. Membership recognizes individuals who exemplify outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service in the medical sciences, health care, and public health.

Gerecht was elected for her work on the interactions between stem cells and their microenvironments and for engineering artificial cell microenvironments capable of guiding vascular differentiation, delivery, and regeneration of tissues.

Rebecca Schulman Rebecca Schulman, an INBT associate faculty member, received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). This award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Schulman is an expert in developing programmable, active devices that self-assemble from DNA. Her research group focuses on molecular electronic devices and tools for biological and biophysical research.

Denis Wirtz Denis Wirtz, co-founder and core member of INBT, vice provost for research, and Theophilus Halley Smoot Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was elected a foreign member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium. Comprising 70 members, the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium was founded in 1841, and Wirtz is the first engineer and non-MD to be elected.

Wirtz studies the molecular and biophysical mechanisms of cell motility and adhesion and nuclear dynamics in health and disease, with a special focus on aging, cancer, and progeria.