Ratner Elected to NAE
NEWS RELEASE
On February 15, 2002, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced that Dr. Buddy Ratner, Professor of Bioengineering, has been elected as a member for contributions to the understanding of the surface interactions of biological molecules and cells with medical implants. He will officially be inducted into the Academy on October 6, 2002 during the NAE annual meeting in Washington DC.
Considered by those in the field to be the highest honor accorded to an engineer, an election to the NAE is the culmination of a career spent researching and implementing innovative and groundbreaking research. "My election to the National Academy of Engineering has been a surprise and a magnificent honor for me. The outstanding support of the Department of Bioengineering and all my students, postdocs, and colleagues have helped me translate ideas into solid research and engineering realities", says Ratner.
Buddy D. Ratner received a BS degree in chemistry from Brooklyn College in 1967, and a PhD degree in polymer chemistry from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1972. He is now The Washington Research Foundation Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering and Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington. From 1984 to 1996 he served as director of the National ESCA and Surface Analysis Center for Biomedical Problems (NESAC/BIO). In 1996, he became director of University of Washington Engineered Biomaterials (UWEB), a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center. UWEB, an 11-year program, is a consortium of 20 professors, 100 students and 26 biomedical device companies, and is directed toward revolutionizing the way biomaterials heal in medical implant applications. In 2000 he also assumed the principal investigator role on an NIH Bioengineering Research Partnership program to tissue engineer living heart muscle.
Professor Ratner is a member of many professional societies including the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the International Society for Contact Lens Research, the American Vacuum Society, the Society For Biomaterials, the Controlled Release Society and the Materials Research Society. He was President of the Society For Biomaterials from 1991 to 1992. In 1998, he was elected Vice-President of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).
He is the founding editor of the journal, Plasmas and Polymers, an Assistant Editor for the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, the editor of Journal of Undergraduate Research in BioEngineering and serves on the editorial boards of five other journals and two book series. In 1988, he edited "Surface Characterization of Biomaterials," published by Elsevier Press. In 1996, Academic Press published "Biomaterials Science: An Introduction to Materials in Medicine." Ratner served as lead editor for that volume. In 1997, he co-edited "Surface Modification of Polymeric Biomaterials" (Plenum Press). In 1998, Ratner co-edited Scanning Probe Microscopy of Polymers, published by the American Chemical Society. Dr. Ratner is the author of well over 280 papers, 30 book chapters and many patents. In 1989, he received the Clemson Award for Contributions to the Biomaterials Literature. In April, 1991 he received the Burlington Resources Foundation Outstanding Research Award, and in 1991 received the 1st Annual Perkin-Elmer Physical Electronics Award for Excellence in Surface Science. In 1998, He received the Charles M. A. Stine Award in Materials Science from the American Institute of Chemical Engineering. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Vacuum Society, and the Society For Biomaterials.
During his career at the University of Washington, Dr. Ratner has advised 39 MS students, 25 PhD students, 9 undergraduate students, and 23 postdoctoral fellows.
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