Rice University Professor Antonios G. Mikos was recently awarded the Distinguished Scientist Award by the Houston Society for Engineering in Medicine and Biology (HSEMB) “in recognition of his professional achievements and contributions to research and education in biomedical engineering.”

Mikos, the J.W. Cox Professor of Bioengineering, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and director of Rice's Center for Excellence in Tissue Engineering, is the fourth recipient of this prestigious award. Rice’s J. David Hellums, the A.J. Hartsook Professor Emeritus of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and professor of bioengineering was the first recipient of the award in 1997.

The award was presented at the 25^th Annual Conference of HSEMB on February 8, 2008. For 25 years, the event has attracted engineers, scientists, clinicians and medical researchers from many institutions and companies across Texas and Louisiana who are interested in discussing research and education topics associated with the application of engineering principles to biology and medicine.

Mikos is a leading expert in the field of biomedical engineering. His research interests include biomaterials, drug delivery, gene therapy, nanobiotechnology, and tissue engineering. His work has led to the development of novel orthopedic, cardiovascular, neurologic, and ophthalmologic biomaterials. He has been at Rice since 1992 and has supervised 35 Ph.D. and 6 M.S. graduate students, and has trained 24 postdoctoral fellows. Mikos holds 23 patents, has authored more than 350 publications, and is a founding editor of the journals Tissue Engineering Part A, Tissue Engineering Part B: Reviews, and Tissue Engineering Part C: Methods.

Mikos is president elect of the North American Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society and fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering. He is well-known across academia and the biomedical industry for organizing the short course  Advances in Tissue Engineering, an event he has organized annually since 1993.

Mikos’ contributions in research and education have been recognized by several notable awards, including the Clemson Award for Contributions to Literature from the Society for Biomaterials (2001), the Marshall R. Urist Award for Excellence in Tissue Regeneration Research from the Orthopaedic Research Society (2005), the Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lecturer Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society (2007), the Edith and Peter O'Donnell Award in Engineering from The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (2007), the Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (2007), and the Outstanding Chemical Engineer Award from the Purdue University School of Chemical Engineering (2008).

Mikos received a Chemical Engineering degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece in 1983, and a doctorate in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University in 1988. From 1990-1991, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School.