David Williams is a Professor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, North Carolina, with over forty years' experience in biomaterials science. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Biomaterials, President of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society, TERMIS, and a former Director of the UK Centre for Tissue Engineering, where he is now an Emeritus Professor. In addition to these responsibilities he is a Visiting Professor of the Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital, Cape Town, and has travelled extensively to promote excellence in scientific research and writing. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and has received numerous awards, including the 2012 Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal.