Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic is biomedical engineer who became the first woman engineer to receive the distinction of giving the Director’s Lecture at the National Institute of Health. In 2008, she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, and in 2009, she was elected to the New York Academy of Sciences. One year later she received the Clemson Award of the Society of Biomaterials “for significant contributions to the literature on the science or technology of biomaterials.” In 2012 she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering "for bioreactor systems and modeling approaches for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine," becoming the first woman at Columbia to ever earn that prestigious distinction.