The National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials (NERCB), Sichuan University has recently received a letter from Dr. Carolyn Hansson, the Executive Secretary of Acta Materialia Inc. In the letter, Dr. Hansson informs that Professor Xingdong Zhang has been awarded the 14th Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal, and the award ceremony is to be held in 2021.
Being established in 2008, the Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal was named after the journal Acta Biomaterialia published by Elsevier. The awardrecognizes demonstrated leadership in the field of Materials Science and Engineering. It rewards either
materials research that has had a significant and lasting impact on the development of the discipline, or
recent work of great originality.
With this distinction, Acta Materialia, Inc. not only intends to honor outstanding contributions to the field but also to improve the awareness of the fundamental importance and diversity of materials research, both within the community and the public at large.The awardee should be a recognized world leader in the field of biomaterials, whose accomplishments in discovery and translation to practice are surpassing and well known in the field. This award emphasizes the nominee’s impact on their research field, rather than the metrics on their publications. Being sponsored by Acta Materialia, Inc and Elsevier, the Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal is awarded every year. The award winners will be reported in Acta Materialia, Scripta Materialia and Acta Biomaterialia.
Professor Xingdong Zhang is the fourteenth awardee since 2008. He is also the first Asian awardee. The previous award recipients include: Robert Langer (2008), Buddy Ratner (2009), Nicholas Peppas (2010), Michael Sefton (2011), David Williams (2012), James M. Anderson (2013), Larry Hench (2014), Jack Lemons (2015), Klaas de Groot (2016), Allan S. Hoffman (2017), Jeffrey Hubbell (2018), Antonios G. Mikos (2019), Cato Laurencin (2020). So far, Professor Xingdong Zhang has won four major international awards and five honors in the field of biomaterials.
Porfessor Xingdong Zhang’s profile:
Professor Xingdong Zhang graduated from the Department of Solid State Physics, Sichuan University in 1960. He is now a professor of Sichuan University and the president of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering (IUSBSE). He became a member of the Chinese Academy of Engeering in 2007, a member of the US National Academy of Engineering in 2014, and a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2015. In addition, he initiated research on bioactive ceramics in 1983, and was the first in the world to systematically prove that lifeless porous calcium phosphate ceramics can induce bone formation without the use of living cells or bone growth factors. He proposed the underlying mechanismof “Tissue Inducing Biomaterials” and in 1991 revealed how to make materials osteoinductive. With his research findings, Professor Zhang has opened up a new direction for the development of biomaterials.
About Acta Materialia, Inc.
Acta Materialia, Inc was founded in 1953. Its mission includes the following: Increase and disseminate the knowledge of science and engineering of materials; Publish highest-quality journals covering the areas of materials science, biomaterials, materials engineering, and materials chemistry and physics; Support and promote scientific meetings, award prizes, and undertake other activities to further its fundamental purpose. It publishes four well-known journals: Acta Materialia, Acta Biomaterialia, ScriptaMaterialia, and Materialia.
(https://actamaterialia.org)
