Professor Anseth completed her PhD at CU-Boulder in 1994 and joined the faculty in 1996. Since then she has built a distinguished career as a researcher and teacher. Professor Anseth’s research focuses on the development of new biomaterials, including those that have medical applications. Her work has led to advances and improvements in the treatment of dysfunctional heart valves and human cartilage, shattered bones, diseased brain tissue, and diabetes. The importance of her work to the treatment of injury and disease is reflected in the fact that she is the first engineer to be named as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Among her many awards, Professor Anseth was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2006 and both the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine in 2009. Professor Anseth is also an outstanding teacher and mentor. She received the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award for Education in 2008 as well as the Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award and the Boulder Faculty Assembly Teaching Excellence Award, both in 2000. She has involved more than 100 undergraduates in her laboratory work and mentored an impressive 34 doctoral students. (See related story on page 30.)