Nicholas A. Peppas

The University of Texas at Austin, USA

BMEMat Lifetime Achievement Award Winner

Foreign Member, National Academies of Engineering & Medicine

Academician, Chinese Academy of Engineering

Title: The Future of Advanced Biomaterials and Biopolymers: New Chemical Structures, Chaotic Networks, Molecular Recognition and Nanotechnology.

Nicholas A. Peppas is a professor in Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Pediatrics, Surgery and Molecular Pharmaceutics at the University of Texas at Austin. His group has pioneered the study and use of hydrogels in a multitude of chemical, physical and biomedical applications, and has developed numerous biomaterials and drug delivery systems for delivery of drugs, peptides and proteins. He has 1,800 publications, with an H index of H=210 (211,000 citations). Numerous US patents have been issued or pending, and 3 start-up companies were founded. Research in biomaterials, drug delivery, and bionanotechnology blends modern molecular and cellular biology with engineering principles to design next-generation medicines and devices. Awards include the NAE Founders Award, NAM Adam Yarmolinsky Award, the AAPS Global Leader and Distinguished Pharmaceutical Scientist Awards, the Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal, and the Giulio Natta Prize. Peppas is a member of seventeen Academies including NAE, NAM, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Inventors, Academia Europaea, International Academy of BME, Canadian Academy of Engineering, Indian National Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Korean Academy of Science and Technology, National Academy of France, Royal Academy of Spain, Academy of Athens, Greece, Mexican  Academy of Sciences & Academy of Texas. He is the Editor-in-Chief of “Regenerative Biomaterials” (Oxford). He holds a Dipl. Eng. from NTU of Athens (1971), a Sc.D. from MIT (1973) and is the recipient of 15 honorary doctorates and professorships. In May 2022, USA recognized him with the Ellis Island Gold Medal of Honor.