Athanasiou Awarded Bioengineering Medal
Dec. 7, 2017 - The Samueli School’s Kyriacos Athanasiou has been awarded the 2018 Savio L-Y. Woo Translational Biomechanics Medal by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in recognition of his exceptional contributions to bioengineering.
Athanasiou, UC Irvine Distinguished Professor of biomedical engineering, researches musculoskeletal and cartilaginous tissues, and develops clinical instruments and devices. He focuses primarily on regeneration of cartilage, specifically tissue found in knee, hip and shoulder joints, and in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ).
ASME honored him for “inventing intraosseous infusion (injection directly into the marrow of a bone), developing corresponding patented technologies, and translating those technologies to clinical use worldwide.”
Athanasiou will receive a bronze medal and a $1,000 honorarium at the World Congress of Biomechanics conference next July in Dublin, Ireland. He says he was “delighted” to receive the award, adding: “It is humbling to be recognized with a medal that carries the name of one of the fathers of biomechanics. Indeed, Professor Woo is a world-class leader and one of my inspirations as a graduate student and throughout my career.”
The Woo medal, which was first awarded in 2016, is named for the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Woo is considered a pioneer of bioengineering and is renowned for his 45 years of tissue repair and translational research.
Athanasiou, who directs UCI’s DELTAi (Driving Engineering and Life-science Translational Advances @Irvine) lab, joined the faculty on July 1, after serving as chair of the biomedical engineering department at UC Davis. “I continue to be dazzled and delighted by the scientific and engineering excellence that permeates [UCI],” he says. “This is the perfect environment for people like me and my group to perform high-quality work that can be peer-accepted and recognized with great awards like the Woo Medal.”
- Anna Lynn Spitzer
