Paul Ducheyne is Professor of Bioengineering and Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery Research at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. He has been Director of its Center for Bioactive Materials and Tissue Engineering and was a Special Guest Professor at K.U. Leuven, Belgium. Paul Ducheyne is Founder, President-designate and Chairman of the Board of Directors of XeroThera, a spin-out from the University of Pennsylvania, developing advanced controlled delivery concepts for prophylaxis and treatment of surgical infections, including resistant infections. Paul Ducheyne has more than 30 years of scientific, technical, entrepreneurial and governance experience in the biomaterials, medical device, tissue engineering and controlled release fields, especially as it concerns orthopaedics, but also as it relates to cardiology, dentistry and medicine.

Paul Ducheyne graduated from the KU Leuven, Belgium, in Materials Science and Engineering (M.Sc.: 1972; Ph.D.: 1976). With fellowships from the National Institutes of Health (International Postdoctoral Fellowship) and the Belgian American Educational Foundation (Honorary Fellowship), he performed postdoctoral research at the University of Florida and formulated the concept of stimulating bone tissue ingrowth into porous coatings on joint replacement prostheses by using a thin film of hydroxyapatite. This concept is now standard throughout the industry and the world.

Over a diverse research career, he has organized a number of significant symposia and meetings, including the Fourth European Conference on Biomaterials (1983), the Engineering Foundation Conference on Bioceramics (1986) and the 6th International Symposium on Ceramics in Medicine (1993). The 1986 meeting led directly to the New York Academy of Sciences publications Bioceramics, material characteristics versus in vivo behavior (1988). He has lectured around the world and currently serves, or has served on, the editorial board of more than ten scientific journals in the biomaterials, bioceramics, bioengineering, tissue engineering, orthopaedics and dental fields. He was a member of the editorial board, and then an Associate Editor, of Biomaterials (Elsevier), the leading biomaterials journal, since its inception in the late 1970s. His papers have been cited more than 11,000 times with an “h-factor” of 61; his ten most visible papers have been cited close to 3,000 times. He has edited 16 books and book volumes and is Editor-in-Chief of Comprehensive Biomaterials, a 6-volume, 3,650-page major reference work published by Elsevier in August 2011. The second edition is slated for publication in 2017.

Ducheyne started his career in Europe. While at the KU Leuven, Belgium (1977 – 1983), he was one of the co-founders of the Post-Graduate Curriculum in Bioengineering. This program is now a full M.Sc. program in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In those initial years, he was also chairman-founder of the chapter on Biomedical Engineering of the Belgian Engineering Society (Flemish section) and director of Meditek, the Flemish Government body created to promote Academia to Industry Technology Transfer in the area of Biomedical Engineering. In 2007, the KU Leuven appointed him as a Special Guest Professor (2007 - 2010).

After joining the University of Pennsylvania in 1983, he became one of the leading voices explaining the mechanisms whereby calcium-phosphate based ceramics and glasses enhance and stimulate bone tissue formation. This work led to many papers, product formulations and, in 1992, the founding of the company Orthovita. This company was the first osteobiologics company to become publicly listed.  Orthovita was the leading, independent biomaterials company in the world with more than 250 employees at the time of its acquisition by Stryker in June 2011. He also founded Gentis, Inc., which focuses on breakthrough concepts for spinal disorders.

Paul Ducheyne has been a leader in helping to clarify the validity of important patents in the field. At various times, he testified in federal court proceedings in cases that set the tone for subsequent development with respect to novel concepts, such as porous coatings (late 80s), tissue engineering methods (2004), and spinal disc replacement and spinal fusion devices (2008-2013). In addition, he has also rendered opinions regarding device functioning, mostly of orthopaedic devices and of general surgery devices for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse and hernia repair.

Many of Ducheyne’s PhD students and postdoctoral fellows have become leaders of the next generation. Among his students are Professors at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan, Columbia University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Kyushu University and K.U. Leuven. Among seven U.S. Associate Editors of the Journal for Biomedical Materials Research (Wiley and Society for Biomaterials), three were his PhD students.

Paul Ducheyne has been Secretary of the European Society for Biomaterials, is Past President of the Society for Biomaterials (USA) and Past President of the International Society for Ceramics in Medicine. He has been recognized as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and fellow of the International Association of Biomaterials Societies. He was the first Nanyang Visiting Professor at the Nanyang Institute of Technology, Singapore, and is a Honorary Professor at Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. He has received the C. William Hall Award from the Society for Biomaterials (2008). He also is the recipient of the Founders Award from the Society for Biomaterials (2015) for his “long-term, landmark contributions to the discipline of biomaterials”, and has been awarded the Inaugural Bioceramics Pioneer Award, by the International Society for Ceramics in Medicine (2016) for “outstanding lifetime achievements”.