Robert Langer, ScD

Robert Langer is one of the world’s most prolific academic entrepreneurs, having co-founded more than 40 biotechnology companies, including Moderna, Alnylam, and Momenta Pharmaceuticals. His innovations have led to dozens of FDA-approved products and more than 1,500 patents licensed to over 400 companies, shaping drug delivery, tissue engineering, and nanomedicine. Through his unique model of translating cutting-edge science into real-world therapies, Dr. Langer has helped bring life-saving technologies to millions of patients while redefining the role of the scientist-entrepreneur. Dr. Robert Langer is one of 12 Institute Professors at MIT, the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member. He was formerly the Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering and maintains activity in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. He is also a faculty member of the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology and the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Dr. Langer’s work has been cited >450,000 times across more than 1,600 articles; his citations and H-index of 331 are the highest of any engineer in history and the second highest of any individual in any field. He is widely recognized around the world for his research in biotechnology, especially in the field of drug delivery systems and tissue engineering. Dr. Langer’s research laboratory at MIT is the largest biomedical engineering lab in the world, maintaining over $17 million in annual grants and over 100 researchers. He has been awarded numerous leading prizes in recognition of his work. Dr. Langer served as Chairman of the FDA’s Science Board (its highest advisory board) from 1999-2002. He was a U.S. Science Envoy for the U.S. government and is one of only 3 living individuals to have received the United States National Medal of Science and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation (awarded by President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama respectively). His over 220 awards include the Charles Stark Draper Prize (often called the Engineering Nobel Prize), Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Albany Medical Center Prize, Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Kyoto Prize, Wolf Prize for Chemistry, Millennium Technology Prize, Priestley Medal (highest award of the American Chemical Society), Gairdner Prize, Hoover Medal, the Dreyfus Prize in Chemical Sciences, and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (highest award in Spain). He holds 36 honorary doctorates and has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors. He was the youngest person in history to be elected into all 3 academies at 43 years old.