Todd D. Giorgio has been named a 2012 Distinguished Bioengineering Alumnus by the department of bioengineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Giorgio earned a doctorate in chemical engineering from Rice in 1986.

The department’s alumni awards honor excellence in research, teaching, service or significant contributions to academia, society or the bioengineering industry.

Giorgio was named chair of the department of biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt in 2008. He first joined the Vanderbilt faculty as an assistant professor of chemical engineering in 1987.