Headlines

As reported by The Hartford Courant, August 5, 2009.

Obama Honors UConn Dean

By Grace E. Merritt

FARMINGTON - Cato T. Laurencin, dean of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and vice president for health affairs at the University of Connecticut Health Center, has been chosen to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence.

President Barack Obama will give the award to Laurencin and 21 other science, math and engineering mentors in a ceremony at the White House this fall. The award recognizes the role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying engineering or science.

Laurencin, a renowned orthopedic surgeon who simultaneously earned an M.D. at Harvard and a doctorate in chemical engineering at M.I.T, arrived at the financially troubled health center last year from the University of Virginia, where he was chairman of orthopedics.