Rena Bizios, Ph.D.

Rena Bizios, Lutcher Brown Endowed Chair Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) as part of the 2022 induction class.

Election to the NAE is one of the foremost professional accomplishments in the field and is reserved for those who demonstrate significant contributions to the engineering literature and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education”. Professor Bizios was recognized for her “contributions to the theory and applications of cellular tissue engineering, cell/biomaterial interactions, and surface modification biomaterials… Continue reading.

BioMedSA, the nonprofit corporation founded in 2005 to promote and grow San Antonio’s leading industry—health care and bioscience—will present its 2020 BioMedSA Award for Innovation in Healthcare and Bioscience to Rena Bizios, the Lutcher Brown Endowed Chair in UTSA’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Bizios is a globally recognized educator and researcher who has made pioneering contributions to biomedical engineering curricula as well as groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of cell-material interactions at the tissue/implant interface with applications in implant biomaterials, tissue engineering and tissue regeneration… Continue reading.

(Oct. 21, 2015) — UTSA faculty member, educator and researcher Rena Bizios, a pioneer in biomedical engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors for medical sciences, health care and public health professionals. Bizios’ election to the National Academies moves UTSA one step closer to Tier One, a designation that includes, among other things, the number of faculty at a university with memberships in the National Academies.

Bizios is the first full-time, tenure-track UTSA faculty member to be elected to the National Academies and the third overall.

The research interests of Bizios, a Peter T. Flawn Professor in the UTSA Department of Biomedical Engineering, include cellular and tissue engineering, tissue regeneration, biomaterials (including nanostructured biomaterials) and biocompatibility. She is recognized for making seminal contributions to the understanding of cell-material interactions, protein/cell interactions with nanostructured biomaterials, and for identifying the effects of pressure and electric current on cell functions during new tissue formation. Her research has applications in the tissue engineering and tissue regeneration fields.

Rena Bizios, a Peter T. Flawn Professor in the UTSA Department of Biomedical Engineering, recently received two prestigious awards for her life-long contributions to the biomaterials field and to biomedical engineering education.

The first, the 2014 Founders Award of the Society for Biomaterials, is the highest recognition for life contributions by a leading scientist/engineer in the biomaterials field. Bizios was recognized for seminal contributions in cell-material interactions, protein/cell interactions with nanostructured materials, cellular engineering, and for identifying the effects of select biophysical stimuli on new tissue formation at the cellular/molecular levels.

Bizios’ second honor, is the 2014 Theo C. Pilkington Outstanding Educator Award from the Biomedical Engineering Division of the American Society for Engineering Education. She was honored for her contributions to education, leadership, and research in biomedical engineering.

Earlier this year, Sos Agaian, Peter T. Flawn Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Rena Bizios, Peter T. Flawn Professor of Biomedical Engineering, were inducted as fellows into the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an elected honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.

The UTSA Office of the Vice President for Research and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) announce an award of $200,000 in FY 2013 Connect program funding to UTSA Peter T. Flawn Professor of Biomedical Engineering Rena Bizios and SwRI Senior Research Scientists Vicky Poenitzsch and Xingguo Cheng for their collaborative research proposal, “Novel Scaffolds for Tendon-Ligament Regeneration and Tissue Engineering Applications.”

The funding will support the researchers in designing, fabricating and establishing the efficacy of new scaffolds for tendon-ligament repair and regeneration.