Ben Lawrence Receives A Graduate
Research Excellence Award from
OSU
 Ben
Lawrence won the 2009
Graduate Research Excellence
Award, selected from all
CEAT PhD candidates, for his
research on
Mass Transfer in Porous
Tissue Engineering
Scaffolds.
The foreground of the
photo, from L to R, shows
OSU President Burns Hargis,
congratulating Ben Lawrence,
with Ben’s PhD research
supervisor Sundar Madihally.
VPs Bosserman and Bird are
standing in the background.
Criterion for the award
was excellence in
dissertation research.
One student was selected
from each of the three
graduate research groups for
the university.
Publications are one measure
of excellence; and Ben’s
graduate research led to 6
journal publications, 4
conference proceedings, and
11 presentations at national
meetings.
Ben’s work explored the
potential for tissue
engineering to design
synthetic materials that
could replace damaged tissue
in humans. For
example, the material could
be a skin patch to cover
burned areas. The
patch would need to be a
“scaffold” structure that
would encourage new cell
growth including the blood
vascular system that
provides nutrients, be
porous to permit nutrient
delivery to cells, dissolve
as the new cells replace the
damaged area, and have the
same stress-strain behavior
as the native tissue.
Ben modeled mass transfer,
fluid flow, and dissolution
reaction mechanisms for the
tissue scaffolds, which are
all classic chemical
engineering topics applied
to biological systems.
Ben is currently a
Process Engineer for Intel,
at the D1C development FAB
in Hillsboro, Oregon.
As a graduate student Ben also received these honors and awards:
- Top 3 Finalist,
Phoenix Awards
(Outstanding PhD Student
at OSU) 2008
- Graduate College
Summer Research
Fellowship, Oklahoma
State University 2008
- Nancy Randolph Davis
Graduate Student
Scholarship, Oklahoma
State University 2007 –
2008
- 1st Place
– Graduate Student Paper
Presentation, OSU
Research Week,
Stillwater, OK 2007
- Golden Key Honor
Society
The purpose of the
Graduate Research Excellence
Award is to recognize
graduate students for their
outstanding research
accomplishments as reflected
in their thesis or
dissertation. Universities
gain national recognition
for research, and the
quality of an institution’s
graduate programs and the
strength of its research and
development capabilities are
closely associated.
Public recognition of the
research conducted by the
institution’s most talented
graduate students is an
explicit way to reward
excellence and to contribute
to the creation of an
environment conducive to
successful research.
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