Danielle Benoit, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Rochester, will join the Knight Campus as the inaugural bioengineering chair
The Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact at the University of Oregon has named Danielle Benoit as the inaugural Lorry Lokey Chair of the Department of Bioengineering. An expert in therapeutic biomaterials for tissue regeneration and targeted delivery of therapeutics, Benoit is an award-winning teacher and mentor to next-generation researchers who currently serves as the University of Rochester’s William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
An NIH- and NSF-funded researcher, Benoit specializes in the rational design of polymeric materials for regenerative medicine and drug delivery applications. Her work has provided insights into the translation of tissue engineering strategies for bone allograft repair, development of pH-responsive nanoparticles for nucleic acid and small molecule delivery, and novel targeting strategies for bone-specific delivery of therapeutics.
Benoit is a sought-after instructor at Rochester and guest lecturer at universities in the U.S. and abroad who was recognized with the Frederick D. and Susan Rice Lewis Award for Undergraduate Teaching and Research Mentorship from the University of Rochester in 2019. She is a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and is currently on the editorial boards of The Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, Science Advances and Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. She has served as a reviewer for many top peer-reviewed journals including Biomaterials, Advanced Materials and The Journal of Biomedical Materials Research. An active innovator, Benoit has ten patents/invention disclosures with related licensing agreements on many of them.
Benoit joined the University of Rochester as an assistant professor after completing her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington in the Department of Bioengineering. She holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a B.S. from the University of Maine, Orono, in Biological Engineering.
“Professor Benoit has supervised numerous post-doctoral scholars and doctoral students who have entered careers in higher education, governmental labs and industry,” said Robert Guldberg, Vice President and Robert and Leona DeArmond Executive Director of the Knight Campus. “Her commitment to her students, as well as the energy she pours into to her research and entrepreneurial activities made her candidacy stand out. We look forward to her leadership in building out the department in the years to come and welcome her to the Knight Campus, where her lab program will intersect with numerous programs of our existing Knight Campus faculty.”
Benoit will be the Knight Campus’ first formal chair for the Department of Bioengineering. The academic and research interests of the Knight Campus have been led by James E. Hutchison, senior associate vice president and the Lorry Lokey Chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry, during the inception years of the program. Hutchison will remain with the Knight Campus in his leadership role and will provide active succession support to Benoit. Benoit will join the Knight campus in the fall of 2022.
— July 27, 2022