The University of Texas at El Paso

THOMAS BOLAND is a Professor in the Department of Metallurgy, Materials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso. He also serves as the director of UTEP’s Biomedical Engineering Programs. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Genie Chimique in Toulouse, France in 1990, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA in 1995. In 1994, he was a finalist for the Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award. Following his Ph.D., he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Materials Science at the Pennsylvania State University from 1995-1997, and at the Naval Research Laboratory from 1997-1999. In 1999, he joined Clemson University as Assistant Professor, where he received tenure in 2005. He holds an adjunct appointment as a Professor at the Texas Tech University Foster School of Medicine. Thomas’ research interests are applying engineering principles to automate, predict and build three-dimensional structures that show biological function. He is the inventor of bioprinting, or live-cell tissue printing, and has been the founder of this field of research. He has received over $45M in research funding for his work. He has received numerous awards and was featured on CNN and the Discovery Channel for his groundbreaking innovations using inkjet printers to assemble cells and biomaterials into viable and functioning structures. He is the author of more than 100 publications, including 3 invited reviews and chapters, and he has delivered more than 57 invited presentations. His publications were cited over 12,000 times. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. He is a member of the Society for Biomaterials, MRS, the Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T), the International Society for Biofabrication, BMES, and the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society. Thomas is the co-founder of TeVido Biodevices, a UTEP spin-off that is commercializing skin grafts for vitiligo patients and nipple areola grafts for breast cancer survivors.