Deok-Ho Kim, an associate professor in the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, founding director of the Hopkins Center for Microphysiological Systems, and associate researcher at the Institute for NanoBioTechnology, has been selected to receive the 2022 Engineer of the Year Award from the Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association and the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies.

This award recognizes an individual who has made outstanding technical contributions in engineering.

Deok-Ho’s pioneering research focuses on the development of biomedical materials and devices and human organ or tissue-on-a-chip technologies for disease modeling, drug development, and precision medicine. His innovations include microphysiological models of heart diseases, peripheral neuropathies, and cancer as well as micro/nano-fabricated platforms for drug efficacy and toxicity screening. Using engineered microenvironments and patient-derived organotypic culture models, his research seeks to gain a better understanding of human disease biology and contributes to biotherapeutic development.

Deok-Ho earned his doctorate in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins in 2010, became an associate professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, and returned to Hopkins in 2019. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the American Heart Association’s National Scientist Development Award, the Young Innovator Award of Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering from BMES, and was recently elected a Fellow of the American Heart Association and the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

Deok-Ho will receive this award during the 35th U.S.-Korea Conference on Science, Technology and Entrepreneurship, to be held in Arlington, Virginia from August 17 through August 20.