Mark Saltzman
W. Mark Saltzman, whose pioneering work in biomaterials and drug delivery have earned him a reputation as a visionary innovator in disease treatment and prevention, was recently appointed the Sterling Professor of Biomedical Engineering, effective immediately.
A Sterling Professorship is considered the highest academic honor a Yale professor can receive.
Saltzman joined the faculty at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS) in 2002, after serving on the faculty at Johns Hopkins University and Cornell University. He also has appointments in chemical & environmental engineering (at SEAS) and in cellular & molecular physiology, and dermatology, at Yale School of Medicine (YSM).
In 2003, he became the founding chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, a role he served until 2015. Saltzman’s leadership, said Yale Engineering Dean Jeffrey Brock, has set the department on a steep upward trajectory over the past 22 years.
Saltzman’s research has been formative in the fields of controlled drug delivery and tissue engineering. His work has applied engineering principles to understand cell mobility and migration within implantable matrices, establishing a basis for quantitative design of engineered tissues. His research has also focused on integration of drug delivery into tissue engineering and organ transplantation. In all of this work, he has collaborated closely with physician-scientists at Yale School of Medicine.
He is recognized as a pioneer in quantifying and modeling the transport of drugs and macromolecules through synthetic polymers and biological matrices, having applied this work, in particular, to applications in women’s reproductive health, to the treatment of brain and skin cancer, and to the delivery of gene editing agents. His research group has made numerous fundamental discoveries about how drug carriers interact with cells which have informed the development of innovative delivery systems for small molecules, proteins, and nucleic acids. Several of these efforts have moved beyond the lab towards clinical translation.
This research has earned him wide acclaim. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Inventors. He was named a fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society in 2010, a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science & Engineering in 2012, and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2013. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2014 and the National Academy of Engineering in 2018. He has delivered more than 300 invited lectures throughout the world, received over 25 patents, written three textbooks, and published nearly 400 scientific papers.
Saltzman is also a dedicated and valued teacher and mentor. His courses examine topics from physiological systems and the physiology of health to the engineering of drug delivery. In 2009, he was awarded Yale’s Sheffield Teaching Prize for excellence in the classroom. His course on the “Frontiers of Biomedical Engineering” is available around the world through the online Open Yale Courses program.
He has also been recognized as an extraordinary university citizen. He recently began a three-year appointment as Head of Jonathan Edwards College, a role he also held from 2016 to 2022, and serves as deputy dean for academic affairs within Yale Engineering. He has served as a deputy dean at the school since 2023, where his portfolio has included overseeing the Center for Engineering Innovation and Design and leading an undergraduate curriculum task force with Yale College.
“In all these significant roles,” Brock noted, “Mark is regarded as authentic, thoughtful, humble, curious, and a person of integrity.”
Saltzman earned his B.S. at Iowa State University; an S.M. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and his Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Harvard University Division of Health Science and Technology.
