Molly M. StevensThe recipient of the 2020 Acta Biomaterialia Silver Medal is Prof. Molly M. Stevens, Professor of Biomedical Materials and Regenerative Medicine at Imperial College London (UK). She graduated with a First Class Honours B.Pharm degree from Bath University in 1995 and a Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham in 2001. Later she joined Prof. Robert Langer’s group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral researcher, where she worked on bone regeneration. In 2004 she joined Imperial College London as a lecturer and was promoted to Professor in 2008, making her one of the youngest professors in the history of the institution.
Prof. Stevens’ group is highly multidisciplinary, comprising of researchers and students with backgrounds in engineering, chemistry, physics, biology and medicine, who work at the cutting edge of bioengineering and develop bio-inspired materials for applications in regenerative medicine, tissue engineering and biosensing. She balances the investigation of fundamental science with the development of materials-based technologies to address some of the major healthcare challenges. Prof. Stevens’ work has been instrumental in elucidating the cell-material interface and the complex mechanisms of tissue formation. She has designed a wide range of biomaterials engineered to elicit specific responses from living tissues. Her research in nanotechnology has resulted in the co-development of the biodegradable nanoneedle platforms for drug delivery and cellular interfacing, and nanomaterial-based lateral flow assays for ultrasensitive disease detection, which have been tested in clinic and in the field. She has pioneered the use of material-characterisation techniques in life sciences with her group's Single Particle Automated Raman Trapping Analysis, SPARTATM, and the quantitative Volumetric Raman Imaging, qVRI, techniques, amongst others. Prof. Stevens has generated a substantial body of work, which influences research groups around the world – she was named Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher 2018 for cross-field research. She has also filed numerous patents and has been involved in medical device development and approval.
Prof. Stevens is a Fellow of seven major UK Societies, including the Royal Academy of Engineering, for which she was elected under the age of 40. In 2019, she was elected Foreign Member of the National Academy of Engineering. She holds numerous international leadership positions, including Director of the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform hub for Smart/Acellular Materials, Deputy Director of the EPSRC Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Early-Warning Sensing Systems for Infectious Diseases, Member of the Board of Directors of the Materials Research Society and President of the RSC’s Division of Materials Chemistry. Prof. Stevens and her group have been recognised with multiple major awards, including the Rosalind Franklin Medal from the Institute of Physics (2018), the Marshall R. Urist Award from the Orthopaedics Research Society (2018), the Clemson Award for Basic Research from the Society of Biomaterials (2016), and the Clifford Paterson Lecture Award from the Royal Society (2012). Prof. Stevens’ programme has graduated over 50 doctorate students and she has mentored over60 postdoctoral researchers. Her alumni/alumnae have continued their research in prestigious institutions and many of them have secured competitive independent faculty positions.
Prof. Stevens will receive her Acta Biomaterialia Silver Medal at the 11th World Biomaterials Congress to be held in Glasgow (UK) in May, 2020.