Robert M. Nerem, PhD
Director, Georgia Tech/Emory Center for Regenerative Medicine; Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia

Dr. Nerem joined Georgia Tech in 1987 as the Parker H. Petit Distinguished Chair for Engineering in Medicine.  He is an Emeritus Professor and currently serves as the Director of the Georgia Tech/Emory Center (GTEC) for Regenerative Medicine, a center established with an NSF- Engineering Research award.  He also is a part-time Distinguished Visiting Professor at Chonbuk National University in Korea. He received his Ph.D. in 1964 from Ohio State University and is the author of more than 200 publications.  He is a Fellow and was the founding President of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (1992-1994), and he is past President of the Tissue Engineering Society International, the forerunner of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative medicine International Society (TERMIS).  In addition, he was the part-time Senior Advisor for Bioengineering in the new National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health (2003-2006).  In 1988 Professor Nerem was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and he served on the NAE Council (1998-2004).  In 1992 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and in 1998 a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  1994 he was elected a Foreign Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and in 1998 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in the United Kingdom.  In 2004 he was elected an honorary foreign member of the Japan Society for Medical and Biological Engineering and in 2006 a Foreign Member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences.  Professor Nerem holds honorary doctorates from the University of Paris, Imperial College London, and Illinois Institute of Technology.  In 2008 he was selected by NAE for the Founders Award.