Nelson J. Leonard Distinguished Lecturer - Robert S. Langer

Robert Langer Robert S. Langer is the Kenneth J. Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Langer has authored 725 articles and 500 patents. His patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 100 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology, and medical device companies. A number of these companies were in fact launched on the basis of Langer's patent licenses. He served as a member of the US Food and Drug Administration's highest advisory board and as its Chairman from 1999-2002.

Dr. Langer has received over 100 major awards. In 2002, he received the Charles Stark Draper Prize, the highest recognition for an engineer, from the National Academy of Engineering. He is also the only engineer to receive the Gairdner Foundation International Award. In 1998, he received the prestigious Lemelson-MIT prize, the largest prize available for technologists in recognition of his being "one of history's most prolific inventors in medicine." Professor Langer is one of a very few and certainly the youngest individual to be elected as a member of all three national academies - the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Forbes, Discover, and Bio World magazines named Langer as one of the world's most important contributors to biotechnology. Forbes later selected Langer as an innovator who will "reinvent our future." Time Magazine and CNN have recently named Langer as one of the most influential people in America and one of the top researchers in science and medicine. He has served at various times on 40 boards of directors and advisory boards for such companies as Alkermes, Mitsubishi Pharmaceuticals, Warner-Lambert, and Guilford Pharmaceuticals. Professor Langer has received honorary doctorates from the ETH (Switzerland), the Technion (Israel), Hebrew University (Israel), and the Universite Catholique do Louvain (Belgium).

He received his Bachelor's Degree from Cornell University in 1970 and his Sc.D. from MIT in 1974, both in Chemical Engineering.