Sharon Gerecht, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the Kent Gordon Croft Investment Management Faculty Scholar, has been appointed the Edward J. Schaefer Professor in Engineering. The Schaefer Professorship, previously held by Professor Emeritus S. Rao Kosaraju, was endowed through the generosity of Mrs. Hildegarde H. and Mr. Edward J. Schaefer ’23 to support outstanding Whiting School faculty members.

Sharon is the director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology, and is a global expert in vascular and stem cell biology and engineering. Her pioneering research in vascular and stem cell biology and engineering includes her use of engineering principles as a means to understand and harness the vascular fate of stem cell decisions in therapeutics. Her lab was the first to develop biomaterials to guide tissue formation through activation of cellular pathways to form functional blood vessels. Sharon’s approach of tissue informing biomaterial design has been adopted by investigators across her field. In October 2019, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

After joining Johns Hopkins University as an assistant professor in 2007, Sharon rose through the ranks at the Whiting School—where she built an outstanding career—to now hold this endowed professorship. This achievement is particularly meaningful for Sharon and for the school. An installation ceremony for her Edward J. Schaefer Professorship in the near future.