Congratulations to alumna Christine E. Schmidt, B.S. '88, on her election to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM)–considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, recognizing individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and a commitment to service.
Schmidt, the Pruitt Family Endowed Chair in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, was selected for her “outstanding leadership, pioneering research, and clinical translation in neural tissue engineering and wound healing.” Her research has led to innovative approaches to repairing damaged nerves due to injury, surgery or illness as well as to protecting tendons, nerves and muscle during surgical procedures.
In 1988 Schmidt obtained her Bachelor of Science from The University of Texas at Austin and her Ph.D. in 1995 from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign–both in chemical engineering. She pursued her postdoctoral studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Biomaterials. From 1996-2012, she served as assistant professor in chemical engineering at UT Austin and was a founding member, associate professor and professor at UT Austin’s biomedical engineering department. In 2017, she was inducted into the inaugural class of the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering's Academy of Distinguished Chemical Engineers.
The National Academy of Medicine is one of three Academies that make up the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) in the United States. Studies from the National Academies are often congressionally mandated or commissioned by government agencies, and their recommendations can have lasting impact on domestic and global policy.
Earlier in 2024, Schmidt was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in recognition of her more than 25 years of work to help advance the fields of neural tissue engineering and wound healing and for her leadership in diversifying bioengineering. Dual election to NAM and NAE underscores Schmidt’s extraordinary contributions to the field of nerve regeneration and wound healing.
Excerpts from original article: University of Florida.
