Matthew L. Becker
matthew.l.becker@duke.edu
Brief Biography:
Matthew L. Becker is the Hugo L. Blomquist Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering & Material Science, Biomedical Engineering and Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke University. His multidisciplinary research team is focused on developing bioactive polymers which address unmet medical needs at the interface of chemistry, materials and medicine.
Professor Becker was awarded the 2019 Carl S. Marvel Award in Creative Polymer Chemistry from the American Chemical Society and the Macromolecules-Biomacromolecules Young Investigator Award in 2015. He is a Kavli Fellow and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Institute of Medical and Biomedical Engineering and the American Chemical Society. Dr. Becker is also the founder of Viamer Biosciences.
He earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis (2003) as an NIH Chemistry Biology Interface Training Fellow. In 2003, Dr. Becker moved to the Polymers Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology for a NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship and remained on the permanent staff until 2009 as a project leader for bioimaging and tissue engineering. From 2009-2019 he was the W. Gerald Austen Endowed Chair of Polymer Science and Engineering at The University of Akron.