Antonios G. Mikos is the Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University. He is the Director of the J.W. Cox Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering and the Director of the Center for Excellence in Tissue Engineering at Rice University. He received his Dipl.Eng. from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Purdue University. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard Medical School before joining the Rice Faculty in 1992. His research focuses on the synthesis, processing, and evaluation of new biomaterials for use as scaffolds for tissue engineering, as carriers for controlled drug delivery, and as non-viral vectors for gene therapy. His work has led to the development of novel orthopaedic, dental, cardiovascular, neurologic, and ophthalmologic biomaterials. He is the author of over 580 publications and the inventor of 29 patents. Mikos is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors, the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas, and the Academy of Athens. He has been recognized by various awards including the Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lecturer Award of the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Founders Award of the Society For Biomaterials, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-Americas. He is a founding editor and editor-in-chief of the journal Tissue Engineering.