Robert Langer

Robert Langer is among the most prolific inventors in medicine, with over 1350 issued and pending patents worldwide that have collectively been licensed or sublicensed to over 350 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology, and medical device companies. He is the David H. Koch Institute Professor, the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member. Dr. Langer has written over 1,400 articles and is the most cited engineer in history (h-index 264 according to Google Scholar). He served as a member of the United States Food and Drug Administration’s SCIENCE Board, the FDA’s highest advisory board, from 1995 – 2002 and as its Chairman from 1999-2002.

Dr. Langer is one of four individuals to have received both the United States National Medal of Science (2006) and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation (2011). He also received the 2002 Charles Stark Draper Prize, considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for engineers, the 2008 Millennium Prize, the world’s largest technology prize, the 2012 Priestley Medal, the highest award of the American Chemical Society, the 2013 Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the 2014 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and the 2014 Kyoto Prize. He is also the first engineer to receive the Gairdner Foundation International Award. In 1989 Dr. Langer was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, and in 1992 he was elected to both the National Academy of Engineering and to the National Academy of Sciences, and in 2012 he was elected to the National Academy of Inventors. He received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1970 and his Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974, both in Chemical Engineering.