Melissa Grunlan

Melissa Ann Grunlan (nee Deisz) is an American scientist and academic. She is Professor and Holder of the Charles H. and Bettye Barclay Professorship in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University. She holds courtesy appointments in the Departments of Chemistry and Materials Science & Engineering. Her research focuses on the development of polymeric biomaterials for regenerative engineering and medical devices.

Dr. Grunlan is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the ACS PMSE Division, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). She is a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Dr. Grunlan serves as an Associate Editor for ACS Macro Letters.

Early life and education
Grunlan was born to parents Mike and Angie Deisz in Bismarck, North Dakota. As a student at St. Mary's Central High School, she was a member of the National Honor Society for three years. Grunlan graduated with honors from St. Mary's in 1991. While completing her Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry at North Dakota State University, Grunlan received a NASA research fellowship to assist her studies in synthetic organic research. Upon graduating with her BSc and master's degree, Grunlan was employed at the H.B. Fuller Company for four years and then enrolled at the University of Southern California for her PhD in chemistry. She received a Doctoral Dissertation Award from USC's college of letters, arts, and sciences. Following her PhD, Grunlan was a post-doctoral fellow in the department of chemistry at Texas A&M University.

Career
Following her PhD and post-doctoral fellowship, Grunlan joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M as a tenure track assistant professor in August 2005. As a professor in this department, she focused on tailoring polymer structures at the molecular level to improve their utility in medical devices. In recognition of her research, she was awarded a 2010–11 Herbert H. Richardson Faculty Fellow Award. She has worked on the development of "self-cleaning membranes" to enable the development of subcutaneous glucose biosensors. Grunlan was soon appointed the director of undergraduate programs in biomedical engineering. In 2014, Grunlan created a polymer foam to precisely fill a bone defect before hardening into a porous in order to treat facial defects.

By 2017, Grunlan's laboratory focused on developing new polymeric biomaterials for medical devices and regenerative therapies. As an associate professor, she continued work on developing self-cleaning membranes for implanted biosensors, clot-resistant coatings for blood-contacting devices, and scaffolds for bone repair and for the regeneration of osteochondral interfaces. As such, she was named among the inaugural class of Texas A&M's Presidential Impact Fellows. The following year, Grunlan was recognized as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering for "outstanding contributions for the development of polymeric biomaterials for medical devices and regenerative engineering scaffolds."

Outside of Texas A&M, Grunlan has been recognized for her work developing synthetic polymeric biomaterials for implanted medical devices and for regenerative engineering. In 2019, Grunlan was recognized as a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS) for her research on regenerative medicine, specifically to develop tissue engineering scaffolds that can help heal orthopedic tissues. The following year, she was named the 2020 Chancellor Enhancing Development and Generating Excellence in Scholarship Fellow. After serving as 2018 Chair for ACS' Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering Division, Grunlan was recognized with their 2021 Distinguished Service Award. In she was also named a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors and became a Fellow of the ACS' Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering Division.

Awards and honors
Holder of the Charles H. and Bettye Barclay Professorship in Engineering, 2018 – present

Fellow, American Chemical Society (ACS) (Inducted 2019)

Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) (Inducted 2018)

Fellow, ACS Division of Polymeric Materials Science & Engineering (PMSE) (inducted 2022)

Fellow, Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) (inducted 2022)

Senior Member, National Academy of Inventors (NAI) (inducted 2022)

Doctoral Research Award (University of Southern California, College of Letters, Arts & Sciences; 2005)