Honored for her groundbreaking work in 3D printing and bioprinting, Lewis will work alongside other Academy members to inspire meaningful progress in medicine
By Benjamin Boettner
(BOSTON) — The Wyss Institute is proud to announce that Core Faculty member Jennifer Lewis, Sc.D., was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) on October 19, 2026. NAM membership is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to science.
With her election, Lewis, who is also the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, was recognized for her groundbreaking work in 3D bioprinting of soft and living materials and for enabling new opportunities for drug discovery, disease modeling, and therapeutic repair by pioneering advanced techniques for creating vascularized organoids and human tissues.
She is among 100 newly elected members of the NAM, which counts about 2,600 members in total, including 300 international members. Originally established in 1970 as the Institute of Medicine under the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), NAM addresses critical challenges at the intersection of health, science, medicine, and public policy to inspire solutions that can foster meaningful progress across sectors. In collaboration with NAS and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), NAM provides independent, objective analysis and expert advice to the nation to help inform public policy decisions. Collectively, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine advance education and research, recognize outstanding contributions to knowledge, and promote public understanding of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM).
At the Wyss Institute, Lewis is a leader of the 3D Organ Engineering Initiative where she uses her multidisciplinary expertise in soft matter physics, materials sciences, and stem cell biology to advance biological inks and multi-material 3D printing methods to create vascularized human tissues. Her approach of building human tissues from the ground up is forging new paths for better testing efficacies and evaluating potential toxicities of new therapies, studying organ physiology and diseases outside of the human body, and much needed solutions for replacing failing organs in patients.
Lewis earned an Sc.D. in Ceramic Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Among her many honors, she received the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellow Award, the Materials Research Society Medal, the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, the Lush Prize for Scientific Research, the Sigma Xi Gold Key Award, and the NAS James Prize for Science and Technology. Before being newly elected to the NAM, she was elected to the NAS and NAE, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has co-founded four companies, serves on multiple scientific advisory boards, and has developed 3D bioprinting methods that Harvard University has licensed to Trestle Biotherapeutics for creating bioengineered therapies for kidney disease.