The National Academy of Medicine elected Michael J. Yaszemski, MD, PhD, of Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic.
Here are 10 highlights:
1. Selection to the National Academy of Medicine represents excellent professional achievement as well as commitment to service.
2. Dr. Yaszemski treats skeletal defects, specializing in oncologic surgery of the spine, sacrum and pelvis.
3. He directs Mayo's tissue engineering and biomaterials laboratory, with research focused on developing biodegradable scaffold polymers to support bone regeneration and spinal cord regeneration.
4. Dr. Yaszemski also serves as a deputy director within the center for regenerative medicine, focused on research of biodegradable polymers, bone tissue engineering, spinal cord regeneration, nerve tissue engineering, sarcoma cell and molecular biology.
5. He ultimately hopes to transform treatment for common debilitating, life-threatening musculoskeletal conditions.
6. In 2013, Dr. Yaszemski won the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons' William W. Tipton, Jr. M.D. Leadership Award.
7. He served as the first chair of the musculoskeletal tissue engineering study section at the National Institutes of Health. Additionally, Dr. Yaszemski serves as the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research-Part A deputy editor.
8. A Mayo Clinic MD/PhD Committee member, Dr. Yaszemski has mentored more than 200 PhD and MD-PhD students, spine surgery and musculoskeletal oncology clinical fellows, medical students, undergraduate students, international visiting predoctoral students, visiting scientists and postdoctoral research fellows.
9. A retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general, Dr. Yaszemski completed his spine surgery and orthopedic oncology fellowship at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
10. Dr. Yaszemski also earned his doctorate degree in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.