Award Winners
 

Senior Investigator Award (1 winner)
Sarah Heilshorn, PhD
Stanford University, USA
Sarah Heilshorn is Professor and Associate Chair in the Materials Science & Engineering Department at Stanford University. She joined Stanford in 2006 following postdoctoral studies at University of California Berkeley, a PhD from Caltech, and a BS from Georgia Tech. She is currently the Director of the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, an interdisciplinary research institute at Stanford that houses 30 faculty research teams.
Her laboratory integrates concepts from materials science and protein engineering to design new, bioinspired materials for fabrication of living tissues. Within the bioprinting field, she has designed several new inks that are customizable for the printing of sensitive cell types, including neural cultures and stem cells. Her team frequently employs these materials in the development of new biofabrication technologies, such as the use of diffusion to form cohesive printed interfaces and the use of magnetic forces for organoid bioprinting.
Prof. Heilshorn is a fervent supporter of diversifying the engineering community and serves in multiple roles to help achieve this goal. She previously served as an elected board member of the International Society for Biofabrication (ISBF) and is currently on the board of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. She currently serves as an Editor of the journal Acta Biomaterialia, Associate Editor of Science Advances, and on the Editorial Board of Biofabrication.
 

Mid-Career Investigator Award (1 winner)
Lorenzo Moroni, PhD
Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Moroni received his Ph.D. cum laude in 2006 at University of Twente on 3D scaffolds for osteochondral regeneration, for which he was awarded the European doctorate award in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering from the European Society of Biomaterials (ESB). Since 2014 he works at Maastricht University, where he is a founding member of the MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine. In 2016, he became full professor in biofabrication for regenerative medicine. Since 2019, he is chair of the Complex Tissue Regeneration department. He was vice-director of MERLN from 2019 till 2022. Since 2022, he is director of MERLN.
In 2014, he received the Jean Leray award from the ESB and an ERC starting grant. In 2016, he also received the Robert Brown Award from TERMIS. In 2017, he was elected as faculty of the Young Academy of Europe and in the top 100 Italian scientists within 40 worldwide by the European Institute of Italian Culture. He was elected at the European Young Academy of Science in 2017, and at the European Academy of Science in 2022. He received the Merck Materials Science lecture award in 2023, the mid-term career TERMIS award in 2024. He was also elected in 2024 as Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering as well as Fellow of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.
He already guided more than 20 PhD students through their theses as (co-)promoter, and 15 postdocs through their next career steps as professional leaders either in academia or industry. His research group interests aim at developing biofabrication technologies to generate libraries of 3D biological constructs and scaffolds able to control cell fate, with applications spanning from skeletal to vascular, neural, and organ regeneration. From his research efforts, 3 products have already reached commercial translation.
 

Early-Career Investigator Awards (3x winners)

Yongcong Fang, PhD
Tsinghua University, China
Fang Yongcong is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University. He earned both his Bachelor's (2013) and Ph.D. (2020) degrees in Engineering from Tsinghua, followed by postdoctoral research in the same department from 2021 to 2022. In 2023, he was appointed as a Research Assistant Professor. Dr. Fang's research centers on 3D bioprinting and cardiac regeneration, with a focus on functional bioinks and advanced biomanufacturing technologies. Dr. Fang has published 27 papers, including 15 as the first or corresponding author in leading journals such as Advanced Materials (2 papers), Materials Today, Advanced Functional Materials, and Advanced Science. His work has garnered 780 citations on Google Scholar, with one first-author paper recognized as an ESI Highly Cited Paper and two featured as cover articles. His research has also been highlighted by MIT Technology Review and CCTV News. His work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation and the Ministry of Science and Technology's Key Research Projects. He serves as a Youth Committee Member of the Additive Manufacturing Division of the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineering and is a Young Editorial Board Member and guest editor for several prestigious journals such as The Innovation. In 2023, he was selected for the Beijing Association for Science and Technology’s Young Talent Support Program (2023-2025).
Lana Van Damme, MD, PhD
Ghent University, Belgum
Dr. Lana Van Damme is a distinguished PhD graduate specializing in biomaterials and tissue engineering, with a focus on adipose tissue engineering and minimally invasive breast reconstruction. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in medicine at Ghent University, where she developed a strong foundation in clinical practice and patient care. Currently, she serves as the Chief Scientific Officer of the spin-off company 4Tissue and works as a full-time postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University under the mentorship of Prof. Sandra Van Vlierberghe.
Throughout her PhD, Dr. Van Damme has demonstrated exceptional productivity and impact, as evidenced by numerous publications in leading journals such as Critical Care, Acta Biomaterialia, and Biomacromolecules. Her research has significantly advanced the field of adipose tissue engineering, opening new avenues for future studies, which is reflected in the high citation rates of her work.
In addition to her research accomplishments, Dr. Van Damme has been instrumental in translating academic findings into practical applications through her leadership in 4Tissue, showcasing her ability to bridge the gap between theory and industry. Her excellence has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Julia Pollack Award in 2024.
Bram Soliman, PhD
University of New South Wales, Australia
Bram Soliman is a Postdoctoral Researcher (2 years post PhD) at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Otago, New Zealand, under the primary supervision of Associate Professor Khoon Lim on designing biofabrication strategies for the simultaneous control over macro- and microenvironment physical features in engineered tissues. For this work, Dr. Soliman was recognized with the Division of Health Sciences Award for Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis. His current research currently focusses on the developing reductionist in vitro models to investigate the roles of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions in breast cancer drug resistance and metastasis. Dr. Soliman has published 14 papers (6 first author) in highly rated journals including Advanced Materials, Biofabrication, Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Healthcare Materials, Macromolecular Biosciences and Macromolecules (FWCI: 3.67; h-index 10; i10-index 10, > 500 citations). Dr. Soliman is passionate about advancing biofabrication through a multidisciplinary approach towards addressing biological hypotheses and tackle clinically relevant issues. He believes that biofabrication techniques provide excellent tools for addressing these questions, whilst technological developments in these techniques.
 

Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Young Investigator Award (1 winner)

Lucia Brunel, MPhil, BS/MS
Stanford University, USA
Lucia Brunel is a PhD Candidate in Chemical Engineering at the Department of Materials Science, Stanford University. Lucia obtained her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University (2018) and her M.Phil. degree in Materials Science from the University of Cambridge (2019). Her Ph.D. research at Stanford University (2024) focused on the design of hierarchical and cell-instructive biomaterials for tissue engineering and biofabrication. Lucia has been awarded several honors and awards, including funding through the NIH F31, NSF GRFP, and Tau Beta Pi Fellowship, recognizing her outstanding academic excellence. Lucia’s work has been cited over 500 times and published in high impact journals, including Advanced Materials, Science Advances and Nature Communications. Beyond her academic achievements, Lucia has been an active member of the Society of Women Engineers and continues to participate in outreach programs aimed at encouraging young women to pursue careers in STEM fields. Her outstanding commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive environment was recognized by the Dean’s Graduate Student Advisory Council JEDI Graduation Award (Standford University, 2023).
 

Travel Awards
Gabriela Soares Kronemberger
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Ginevra Pegollo
University of Pisa, Italy
Jakub Janiak
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland
Inseon Kim
Dongguk University, Republic of Korea
Bram Soliman
University of New South Wales, Australia
Myungji Kim
Pohang University of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea
Lucia Brunel
Stanford University, USA
Ronan Tiu
Stony Brook University, USA
Keisuke Nakamura
University of Colorado Boulder, USA