Professor to Receive Prestigious Scientist Medal
Dr. Orlando Auciello, professor of materials science and engineering and of bioengineering at The University of Texas at Dallas, has been selected to receive the 2023 International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM) Scientist Medal. The prestigious medal recognizes scientists for notable breakthroughs and progress in advanced materials science, engineering and technology.
Auciello, holder of the Distinguished Chair in Engineering, is a fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Materials Research Society (MRS) and served as MRS president in 2013. He will receive the award and deliver the Scientist Medal Lecture in August at the IAAM Fellow Summit in Stockholm.
“I am honored by the IAAM Scientist Medal recognition for ‘distinctive contributions toward interfacing the materials for multi-interdisciplinary fields of science, engineering and technology,’” Auciello said. “I am also honored by UTD’s support through my distinguished chair position that enabled me to help a biomedical engineering graduate student make a major contribution in the development of a revolutionary UNCD-coated metal dental implant that will improve the quality of life of people worldwide.”
Auciello contributed to materials science and technological applications of multifunctional oxide films applied to nonvolatile ferroelectric memories marketed by companies, including Panasonic Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc., since the 1990s.
As a researcher at Argonne National Laboratory from 1996 to 2012, Auciello and his colleagues developed ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) thin film technology, for which they hold 17 patents. Advanced Diamond Technologies Inc., a company Auciello co-founded in 2003 and sold in 2019, marketed the technology for industrial products worldwide.
Auciello co-founded Original Biomedical Implants in 2012 in the U.S. before joining the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. The company expanded to Mexico in 2016 to develop new generations of biomedical devices and prostheses based on the UNCD coating.
At UT Dallas, Auciello’s research involving biomedical engineering graduate Karam Kang MS’17 demonstrated that UNCD-coated dental implants eliminate the risk of failure of metal implants. In clinical trials at a Querétaro, Mexico clinic, 50 patients have received UNCD-coated implants since 2018.
Auciello also helped develop the Argus II Visual Prosthesis System, which restores partial vision to people blind from the degeneration of the retina’s photoreceptors. The Argus II device was named by Time magazine as one of the best inventions of 2013. Auciello continues to research and develop a corrosion-resistant UNCD-encapsulated silicon microchip fully implantable inside the eyes.
A version of this article appeared in News Center.