Bioengineer Athanasiou among biomedical society

Bioengineer Athanasiou among biomedical society’s first fellows

Kyriacos Athanasiou

Kyriacos Athanasiou, the Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Bioengineering, has been elected to the inaugural class of fellows of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), an international professional organization representing more than 3,000 bioengineers and biomedical engineers. BMES is the lead society for the accreditation of all of bioengineering and biomedical engineering departments in the U.S.

Athanasiou was selected as a fellow ”for pioneering work in articular cartilage bioengineering and for substantial contributions to translational research that have resulted in numerous bioengineering products.”

Athanasiou joined Rice in 2000 and has been a member of BMES since 1991. He was president of the society in 2003-2004 and currently serves on the BMES executive committee. In the past, he was a member of its board of directors and a chair of both its finance and membership committees. He also serves as faculty adviser to Rice’s student chapter of BMES.

Athanasiou’s research centers on the regeneration of cartilages of the musculoskeletal system. These are tissues that cannot heal themselves. His Musculoskeletal Bioengineering Laboratory conducts basic research on the healing processes of cartilage and applied research into methods of growing tissues in the lab.