 Hello and welcome to TV30, a production of the Government Information Service and NTN. Today we have a very special guest in studio with us. I am your host, Kendall Eugene. Our guest today, he was named one of the 100 engineers of the modern era by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers at its centennial celebration. He was also named specifically for his trailblazing work in the development of polymer ceramic systems for bone regeneration. He received the Kappa Delta Award, that is the highest honor from the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons, for his work entitled 30 years of bone regenerative engineering. Folks, he has an extensive value and we will hear from him today. Please welcome our very special guest, Dr. Kato Lorencin. Welcome to TV30. Well, thank you. Thank you for having me. And thank you for being here. I'm sure you'll be very, very, very busy and we appreciate you taking that time to at least come and have a little sit down with us. I tried to do your intro, justice, your bio, but I'm sure I left quite a bit out. Let us know a bit more about yourself, as a layman, as a scientist, as a human being. Well, thanks. To start, I'm born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. My dad was actually from St. Lucia, born and raised in St. Lucia and then came to America. And I've now come back and done more work now in St. Lucia. I've actually become a dual citizen with the USA in terms of my work. But I was born and raised in Philadelphia. I went to Princeton for college and then went from there. Actually, I studied engineering at Princeton, then went to Harvard Medical School. I got my MD at Harvard. But at the same time, I sort of revisited my engineering roots and received a PhD at MIT. And then I've been combining work in medicine and engineering over the last 30 years. And it's been a lot of fun and a great job. I'm a orthopedic surgeon. I do shoulder and knee surgery as my area. But also, I do a lot of research in terms of regeneration of tissues. I'm working on regenerating different tissues. When you say that you are working on regeneration of tissues, what exactly does that mean? Well, about 10 years ago, I started a brand new field. And that new field is called regenerative engineering. And it's a field that combines a lot of different areas for us to be able to make new types of tissues. It combines areas like nanotechnology that I work in, stem cell science, areas in physics, developmental biology, which is like how a neuter salamander makes a limb and understanding that. Clinical translation. These are areas that are brought together to be able to work on regeneration of different types of tissues. And we've worked on regenerating almost every tissue of the lower extremity. We can make bone, we can make ligament, we can make tendon, cartilage, we can make pretty much nerves, blood vessels. And so that's been the work over the years. Who would you say would benefit immensely from the work that you have been doing the research on for the past couple of years? Well, I think everyone. So I was at a national meeting about a month ago and someone walked out behind me and started walking behind me. I was wondering why the person's walking behind me. And they stopped for a moment. They said, let's just want to let you know that your technology that you developed was actually used to treat my leg. I had a big fracture in my leg and we lost a lot of bone and they didn't know if they could replace it. And they used your technology and placed it in that area and I'm now walking. And hearing that really warms my heart when you hear about that. But it's not just in terms of those areas. We think that for wounded warriors, there's a place for our technology, for athletes, especially high-performance athletes who injure themselves. We have an application, but it's really for everyone in terms of the types of technologies we've developed. Hearing that, I'm sure that so many, and you mentioned the athletes, you have the sports fans who would see their favorite athlete go down with an injury. But with your technology, could get that person back on the field, back on the court in a lot less than that would possibly have been. I have to say too that here in St. Lucia, we have our young college, the South Lewis Community College. And this is where we have our birding scientists, probably doctors for the future. Do you have a relationship with the college and to share that knowledge with them? Right. Well, I came here last year, and actually I think I had an interview with last year when I announced that we have a new cooperative agreement between my university, which is the University of Connecticut, and the South Lewis. And I said we'll be doing new programs and doing some things together. And I'm very happy to announce and very proud to announce that we've done a lot of great things. One is, as you may know, my autobiography came out at the end of, actually came out last year. And my autobiography is called Successes What You Leave Behind. And one of the things that I pledged that we would do is to place one of these books in every library in the country and one of these books in every school in the country. And thanks to his excellency, Julian Dubois, who is an ambassador to Diaspora, that's happened. And I just talked to him yesterday and he said over 200 books have been placed across the country, in middle schools, grade schools, high schools, libraries across. And that book tells the story of how I grew up and my philosophy in life. It tells the story about regenerative engineering and also gives some lessons for life in terms of moving forward. So I'm very proud that in this last year we've been able to accomplish it. Why did you select that title? Success is what you leave behind for your book. Well, you know, I had 16 lessons in terms of how to succeed in life. And the last lesson was about someone that I knew, a professor I knew. His name was Professor Judah Folkman. And interestingly, he passed away. A month before he passed away, he actually called me and actually came to my laboratory to visit. He wanted to visit and meet everyone in the laboratory. But he passed away and so I went to his memorial service. And sometimes when you're at a memorial service, you can see what's important in life because there were three sets of people there. There were people who talked about his work. He actually created something called Avastin, which is a five or six billion dollar drug saving lots of lives. He has colleagues and friends, people like me, who came to talk about how great he was as a colleague and a mentor. And then he had his family. His family were the people who loved him the most. There were the people who cried for him, the people who remembered him the most. And so that just told me that when you, in passing, it tells me about what you should be doing in life. The three things that are most important are making a contribution. Number two, colleagues and friends and mentoring people. And the third, of course, is cultivating your family. But ultimately, the success that he had is what he left behind, not what he did. And so that's why it's called success is what you leave behind. The book is available on Amazon. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, wherever final books are sold. And maybe your local library here in St. Lucia, too. Okay. We'll take a quick break. And when we return, we will have more with Dr. Lorenzen. I would like to find out, though, for a student reading your book. Would you like them to emulate you? But we'll do that after the break. Okay. We'll be back after these messages. This is TV 30. Nantes has introduced the Electronic Government Procurement System, EGP. The EGP system has many benefits for stakeholders involved in government procurement. And government seeks to adopt a strategic approach to its purchasing process. Electronic government procurement improves efficiency of procurement and enhances data capture. The EGP is innovative and will automate the sequence from notification, receiving and evaluation of submissions to final contract award. It improves communication between vendors and government agencies, provides greater transparency and builds confidence in the vendor community through increased access to information. To participate, vendors, suppliers, and contractors must register on the Electronic Government Procurement Platform. EGP, Improvement Efficiency and Transparency in the Acquisition of Goods, Works and Services. Welcome back to TV 30, a presentation of the Government Information Service and NTN. Today our guest is Dr. Kato Lorenzen. And just before the break, we were talking about your book, Success, What He Leads Behind. Success is what he leaves behind. And the title alone is already intriguing enough for us to pick it up and read to understand some of your life and the work that you have done. My question is though, if a student was to read that book and would like to emulate you, what would your advice be to them? Well, the first is to read the book because the points in the book give a lot of good advice, I think, in terms of life. For instance, if you look at the course of my progress, it's been hard. It's not been easy. Success, great success really means a lot of hard work and it's not easy to be able to have. The second is that some of the sayings I have in the book are important. Tough times go away, tough people don't, is one of the sayings I have. Tough times go away, tough people don't. Tough times go away, tough people don't. The toughest times don't get tougher, but tough people do. And so getting tough in terms of when things come your way. And also in terms of adversity, there's a Lorenzen 15 to 30% rule. Okay. So 15 to 30% of the time when you go for something, strive for something, you actually shouldn't get it. 15 to 30% of the time when you go for something and strive for something, you should not get it because that means you're striving. If 100% of the things that you go for in life you get, that means you're not striving hard enough. But also if you have that attitude, if you don't get something, you're not devastated about it because you know it just shows that you're striving hard. So then you're a believer of you need to work hard for everything in life. I think so. I think that nothing comes easy. Anything that's really important is going to be hard. Every now and then you win the lottery maybe. But the point is that everything in life that's actually worth achieving, actually it has to involve hard work. Excellent. And I quite agree as well. We have a new academy, a new concept. It's a new academy of science, technology and art. That one is said to be initiated. Very exciting news. Could you elaborate on that just a little bit on the idea of the academy and of course the concept? Well I'm very excited about this. I've spoken to the Prime Minister about starting the academy and I think that he's now moving forward for the country to move forward with the academy. In the United States I'm a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine. In fact I think I am the only surgeon in the world that's a member of all three of these academies. And the academies work by doing three things. Actually four things. Number one, they're advisors to the nation. They help give impartial advice to the nation in terms of should go left or right or should you build this road or should you work on this hospital or where a hospital should be located. They can provide objective advice that transcends time and governments. So the National Academy of Science gave advice to President Obama. They gave advice to President Trump. They gave advice to President Biden. And they all took the advice because it was objective advice there. So giving advice and guidance to the country is the first thing. The second is to really help promote science technology in the arts. This country has an incredible tradition, probably one of the best traditions in the world in terms of science technology in the arts, especially with the two Nobel Prize winners. And so this academy is an academy that actually promotes that and supports that and also creates opportunities for others to be able to move into science technology in the arts. The third is that the academy and academy members should be inspirational. Should be people that can mentor others but also serve as role models for individuals. And we have a number of people here in St. Lucia who are doing great work and it allows us to be able to highlight them. And the fourth is it's great for economic empowerment because the fact that the academy itself can produce reports and look at methodologies to increase economic power and entrepreneurship which I think is a big future for St. Lucia. So I'm very, very excited about this. Indeed. We're talking a huge impact for the development of our island and the great assistance to it as well. How would you say that the academy would assist in possibly the development of our island and for us really the young people because we have a very vibrant youth economy that is now going to be tapped into as had been touted by the prime minister. So how would the academy now assist with the development of the country and of course the country's youth? Well one of the things that academies do around the world is that while the academy are a small group of learned older women and men who work on problems, they also a number of the academies have young academies where people who are say 25 to 35 become young academy members for about five years or so. They're mentored by the older academy members. They're provided resources. Say if they have an idea for entrepreneurship. They're provided funding for the entrepreneurship. They want to be artists and they need the time, protected time to be able to really work on their artwork and just concentrate on that. Young academies are organized to help support that activity and that work. So it's the academy process with the senior people and the academy members but then a young academy works with that group empowering young people to be able to dream. That's what a young academy is. It's a group that's allowed to dream. You're working nine to five and you have to do this, this and this but what if you had, you remember the young academy in which you can spend two or three years not working your nine to five, working on your entrepreneurship, working on your artwork, working on getting that certificate in electrical engineering or electronics to help you in terms of what you want to do in terms of your dreams. And so I think that the prime minister embraces this too and understands this very well. He's very, very youth-minded. Really, when I met with him on Tuesday he really talked about the youth of St. Lucia and how it's important that they are able to achieve their dreams. I think this is one way through the academy. We will have a few people asking the financial question. How would you sustain that academy? How would it be financed? And generally how are institutions like what we are speaking about? How are they funded? What would that answer be to our... They're funded by various groups. If you look at the national academies in the U.S. part of it's funded by corporations and groups that want to perhaps explore, may fund an exploration project in terms of bringing their company and bringing jobs to the location. They're funded also by grant programs, federal grants but also international grants. One of the things that happens by becoming an academy, a national academy, one enters the world of national academies. That's also a funding stream that takes place that's outside the federal government here where monies can come in to be able to support projects too. Now we have to take another break, but chef before we do so I quickly want to hear from you how do members, how do they qualify or how do they qualify for membership at the academy or how would they get enrolled into the academy and also if the advice that you spoke of earlier or guidance of the academy is not taken, what would happen? Well I think there are a couple of things. One is that the academy group itself of the senior members will be a small group maybe about five or ten people and they'll be chosen by the prime minister and the cabinet for the first group. One of the important things about these academies is they have to be independent. So from that point on the membership is actually chosen every year, every other year, is actually chosen by the academy members and it has to be an independent organization and that's really key, by being independent you have a greater chance when you provide an opinion that it'll be followed because it's an independent group without any political baggage in terms of things moving forward. Now what we find in the world, if we look at the national academies around the world that's what happens. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, you'll see reports that come out, you're here in the news and quickly congress and leaders actually take up what they've decided, what they've said and they implement them. Okay, we'll take a quick break and when we return, Doc, we want to find out a little bit about the jump program. Okay, this is really on that one as well and it's something that I'm very excited about so we'll speak more on that. TV30, ladies and gentlemen, we are here with Dr. Kato Lawrence. We'll be back right after this. Pamela, I noticed that you built your retaining wall on my property. You'll have to give me my land back or compensate me for that. I trust that it will not build anything on your property. Where is your proof? Let's go to court. This situation does not require you to go to court. Looks like we have to go through mediation here. Mediation is a way people resolve conflicts like this. Someone, a third party, comes to speak to both parties. This person is called the mediator. The mediator is impartial. He or she makes sure that communication between both parties is effective and efficient. So the mediator is a judge? No, the mediator is not a judge. Mediators, unlike judges, do not decide cases or impose settlements. Let me get a mediator to handle this retaining wall and that kitchen. Kitchen? Yes, your kitchen also falls on my land. Let me call the mediator. Welcome back to TV30, a production of the Government Information Service and NTN. Our guest this afternoon, we have Dr. Kato Lawrence in with us. And of course, we have been speaking quite intensively on regenerative engineering, as well as a brand new academy that would be taking shape here very soon. Now, we want to hear a little bit more about the program, the St. Lucia Jump Program. Let us know what is it about and how can the jump program impact the lives and health of our people? Well, great. So as a part of this alliance with Sir Arthur Lewis Community College and the University of Connecticut, we've undertaken a series of new programs. And our first and our prior centerpiece is something called the Jump Program. Jump stands for Just Us Moving Program. It's a program that tries to develop healthy lifestyles and healthy living, healthy exercise and healthy eating. And I started at the University of Connecticut about 10 years ago. And what we saw in Connecticut was just a real improvement in the health of the citizens of the state, especially black and brown citizens in urban areas. Because let's face it in terms of the ability to be able to have a lot of exercise becomes difficult in urban areas in terms of being able to have healthy foods. In America, we have areas that we call food deserts. There are whole cities, urban cities that have no supermarkets, not one supermarket. And so there are these food deserts that take place where there's no, in terms of quality food, there's no quality food. So we've been working, we've worked to tackle that in the states. And now we've brought this program to St. Lucia through Sir Arthur Lewis. And let me just say that I think it's been a great success. We've partnered with the principal of the school and we've partnered actually with their nursing school, their nursing program, to be able to create a train the trainer program where nurses are trained on healthy lifestyle and healthy eating. And then they go out into the communities. That's part of their work in terms of being students. There's a community portion of what they do. And they go out to the community and talk to people about healthy eating and healthy lifestyles. I just met yesterday with Sir Arthur Lewis and they're now going to create courses for everyone in the entire institution that they can take on healthy lifestyle, healthy eating, healthy and healthy exercise. They also plan a workshop series that will be a more of a public workshop series for people to be able to get involved. It's really great. And then I've also met with the St. Lucia Medical and Dental Association. They're going to be involved in terms of being able to talk to their patients about healthy eating, healthy exercise and healthy lifestyles. You're considered the father of regenerative engineering, but I get the feeling that you're also very conscious about healthy living and a healthy lifestyle. So you are in agreement that the jump program should be expanded here? Absolutely. It should be expanded across the country. And I'd like to see, as you may know in terms of St. Lucia is probably one of the five highest rates of diabetes in the world. At one point it was number two. So I'd like to see this country be as healthy as possible. But also I think it's important to respect the culture, to respect the foods of the culture and to utilize the culture and traditions and the foods that are taking place right here to construct this healthy lifestyle. Before we close off, you'd like to see us living a healthy lifestyle? I agree. And I believe that is news for everyone that they should be taking seriously. However, there's something else I'd like to do is you'd like to see here. And that is a regenerative engineering course at Sir Arthur Lewis because you sound like you are very close with the college. So is that something that you'd like to see implemented at our precious institution? Absolutely. So one of the things that took place yesterday we had a big summit meeting with Sir Arthur Lewis in terms of moving forward. And we've agreed in principle to move forward with the first hybrid regenerative engineering course between the U.S. and St. Lucia. It's going to take a little while to get to put together because there's some logistics that are there. But it will be taught part taught at University of Connecticut, part taught at Sir Arthur Lewis. And there's a great deal of excitement. And I can tell you the senior administrative people at the school are super first rate. They immediately were on it. These are the steps that we need to be able to move through. And we'll take the steps at the University of Connecticut to move it through to get this joint course approved to move forward. What's the possibility of it being successfully established here and operating? I think it's very, very high. The key issue obviously is bandwidth and broadband and having the kind of bandwidth that's reliable in terms of a course. Because when the course is taught down here it has to be the bandwidth has to be to get it to University of Connecticut and the people, students there. And when the course is being taught at the University of Connecticut it has to have the bandwidth to be able to move it down here in St. Lucia. I think it's possible, but we definitely have to make sure that that's set up in right. My final question. What are some of the benefits would we see or do you foresee in establishing the course here? Well, I think number one, I think that it would give students an insight into this new field of regenerative engineering. The second is I think that regenerative engineering is very ripe for entrepreneurship. I've started about four or five companies. I'm on the board of two major companies, one in the US and one in Ireland. And I'm hoping that it will spark a student to say, hey, I think I want to work in this space and do something regenerative engineering. We have a master's program in regenerative engineering at the University of Connecticut. Someone may take that course, take this course here. And of course, as a junior or senior, and say, I want to pursue this and pursue a master's degree or PhD and then come back to St. Lucia and maybe start a business working in the regenerative engineering field. Excellent. Dr. Kezel, I want to say a big thank you for joining us today. And I wish you all the best and much success. And hopefully we can see the course taking shape and being established here in St. Lucia. Folks, this has been TV30, a production of the Government Information Service and NTN. I'm your host, Kendall Eugene. Thanks for viewing.