New Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine

May 8, 2008

Dear Members of the UConn Community,

It is my great privilege to announce that Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D., has accepted my offer to lead the University’s Health Center, as UConn’s new Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine. He will hold the Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Chair and will be a Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Laurencin’s selection follows a comprehensive national search led by Richard Garibaldi, M.D., and a dedicated search committee. He will succeed Peter J. Deckers, M.D., who will leave his post on August 10, 2008 after nearly two decades of exemplary service to the Health Center, its students, faculty, staff and patients. Dr. Deckers will take an administrative leave beginning August 11, 2008 and will retire on June 30, 2009. Following his formal retirement, he will continue, on a part time basis, to see patients, teach students and residents, and assist with philanthropic and outreach efforts.

Dr. Laurencin will start on August 11, 2008 and will be visiting the Health Center during the transition period. I am pleased to note that Peter Deckers has agreed to continue leading the Health Center until Dr. Laurencin begins on August 11th.  It goes without saying how grateful we all are to Peter for his many years of leadership at the Health Center and that he will be here in the weeks of transition ahead.  Peter has been a highly regarded advisor during my own transition period at UConn and during this time has also become a deeply valued personal friend.

There are many factors that made Dr. Laurencin the ideal choice for this critically important position. First and foremost, he has outstanding accomplishments in academic medicine as an educator, researcher and clinician. He is internationally renowned in these areas. Further, he has the energy and passion to lead the Health Center during an exciting new chapter of our history. He cares deeply about the mission of the Health Center and will build upon our many strengths in education, research, patient care and community outreach.

An orthopaedic surgeon and a Fellow of both the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and the American Surgical Association, he has lectured throughout the world about new innovations in musculoskeletal regeneration, biomaterials, and shoulder surgery and has published over 200 publications and has more than 20 patents. As you can see by viewing his CV <http://www.uchc.edu/laurencin/cv_laurencin.pdf> , he has pursued extraordinarily successful career tracks in both orthopaedic surgery and chemical engineering/biomedical engineering from the beginning of his training.

Dr. Laurencin is joining us from the University of Virginia where he is currently the Lillian T. Pratt Distinguished Professor, Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Orthopaedic Surgeon-in-Chief at the University of Virginia Health System. In addition, he was designated as a University Professor at the University of Virginia, one of the university’s most prestigious titles, and holds professorships in Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering.

Dr. Laurencin has been with the University of Virginia and its Health System for five years. Prior to that, he was at Drexel University, Drexel University School of Medicine and Hahnemann Hospital where he served as the Helen I. Moorehead Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering, Vice Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Director of Shoulder  Surgery.

Raised in North Philadelphia, Dr. Laurencin earned his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, where he was a Magna Cum Laude graduate and the recipient of the Robinson Award for Excellence in Surgery. During medical school, he also earned his Ph.D. in biochemical engineering/biotechnology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was a Hugh Hampton Young Scholar.

Upon completing both of his doctoral degrees, Dr. Laurencin joined the Harvard University Orthopaedic Surgery residency program, ultimately becoming chief resident in orthopaedic surgery at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He also completed a fellowship in sports medicine and shoulder surgery at Cornell University Medical Center and the prestigious Hospital for Special Surgery, where he worked with the team physicians for the New York Mets and St. John’s University in New York.

Among his many national responsibilities, Dr. Laurencin has been Speaker of the House of the National Medical Association, and currently serves as Chair of the Board of the National Medical Association’s W. Montague Cobb Health Institute. He has been a member of the National Institutes of Health National Advisory Council for Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and the National Science Advisory Board for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He currently sits on the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Directorate Advisory Committee.  

Dr. Laurencin has been named to America’s Top Doctors and America’s Top Surgeons for his clinical achievements and is profiled in the current (May 2008) edition of Black Enterprise magazine, which features “America’s Leading Doctors.” In research, he has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the Department of Defense. He has won the prestigious Nicolas Andry Award from the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons for his work in musculoskeletal regeneration, and most recently his work was recognized by Scientific American Magazine with its “SCIAM 50” award.

Dr. Laurencin is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is married to Cynthia Laurencin, and has three wonderful children, age 9, 11, and 13.

As you can tell, I am absolutely delighted that Dr. Laurencin has decided to join us at the University of Connecticut and am confident he has all the skills and focus to lead the Health Center. Please join me in welcoming him to the UConn community.

Here is a link to a high resolution photo of Dr. Laurencin:

http://www.uchc.edu/laurencin/photo_laurencin.jpg

Sincerely,

Michael J. Hogan
President