Lifetime Excellence Award
2008 Recipients

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View the list of past recipients of this award.

James M. Anderson

James M. Anderson earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from UW-Eau Claire in 1963 and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Oregon State University in 1967. He went to Case Western Reserve University in 1967 to do postdoctoral research, and later entered medical school there. After medical school, he completed an anatomic pathology residency and in 1979 joined the faculty of CWRU's Institute of Pathology and University Hospitals of Cleveland. In 1984, he became a full professor. Since 1981, he has served as chair of the department of pathology graduate education committee.

Anderson is known internationally for his contributions to the basic and applied science of biodegradable polymers and other biomaterials in medical devices and implants with blood and other tissues. With his students, he's published more than 300 papers and 80 book chapters.

Anderson was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 2003. In 2005, he received the Elsevier Gold Medal Award for the most significant overall contribution to biomaterial science by an individual from 1980-2005. In 2006, he received the Chugai Mentoring Award from the American Society for Investigative Pathology, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

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