Dr. Christine E. Schmidt, professor, J. Crayton Pruitt Family Chair & Department Chair, has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and awarded the 2019 Clemson Award for Applied Research from the Society for Biomaterials.

Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional accolade bestowed solely to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society.

Schmidt’s work in materials and cellular/tissue engineering has had a significant clinical impact on nerve repair and post-surgical wound care management. She is the inventor for 10 US patents and six foreign patents that have been licensed to four companies. Her research is the foundation for the start-up company Alafair Biosciences and the Avance Nerve Repair graft from AxoGen.

The National Academy of Inventors is a member organization comprising U.S. and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutes, with over 4,000 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 250 institutions worldwide.

Clemson Awards are given in honor of the strong traditional ties between the Society for Biomaterials and Clemson University that have existed since 1974. Awardees are selected by the Society for Biomaterials Awards, Ceremonies and Nominations Committee and confirmed by the President of Clemson University.

Schmidt was cited for “her development of a useful device or material which has achieved widespread usage or acceptance, or expanded knowledge of biomaterials/host tissue relationships which have received widespread acceptance and resulted in improvements in the clinical management of disease.”

Schmidt has published 120 articles and is Section Editor for Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering. She is the current President of the American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering (AIMBE). She is a Fellow of AIMBE, the Biomedical Engineering Society, and the American Society for the Advancement of Science, as well as a Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering.