Robert S. Langer

Robert Samuel Langer, Jr.
Langer in 2008
Born (1948-08-29) August 29, 1948 (age 76)
Albany, New York, United States
Other namesBob Langer[2]
Alma materCornell University (BSc)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (ScD)
Known forControlled drug delivery and tissue engineering
AwardsGairdner Foundation International Award (1996)
Charles Stark Draper Prize (2002)
John Fritz Medal (2003)
Harvey Prize (2003)
Heinz Award (2004)
Albany Medical Center Prize (2005)
National Medal of Science (2006)
Millennium Technology Prize (2008)
Prince of Asturias Award (2008)
National Medal of Technology and Innovation (2011)
Perkin Medal (2012)
Wilhelm Exner Medal (2012)
Priestley Medal (2012)
Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2013)
IRI Medal (2013)
Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2014)
Kyoto Prize (2014)
Biotechnology Heritage Award (2014)
FREng[1] (2010)
Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (2015)
Kabiller Prize in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine (2017)
Medal of Science (Portugal) (2020)
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards (2021)
Balzan Prize (2022)
Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research (2023)
Kavli Prize (2024)
Scientific career
FieldsChemical Engineering
Biotechnology
Pharmaceuticals
Business
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Doctoral advisorClark K. Colton
Other academic advisorsJudah Folkman
Doctoral studentsW. Mark Saltzman, Erin Lavik, Steven R. Little, Elazer R. Edelman, David J. Mooney, Samir Mitragotri, Mark Prausnitz, Ali Khademhosseini
Other notable studentsRonald A. Siegel, Kristi Anseth, David Edwards (engineer), Jennifer Elisseeff, Omid Cameron Farokhzad, Linda Griffith, Guadalupe Hayes-Mota, Jeffrey Karp, Cato Laurencin, Christine E. Schmidt, Robert J. Linhardt, Antonios Mikos, Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, David Berry, Isaac Berzin, Kathryn Uhrich, Joseph Kost, Akhilesh K. Gaharwar, Molly Stevens, Princess Imoukhuede, Guillermo Ameer, Canan Dağdeviren, Laura Niklason, María José Alonso, Jennifer Elisseeff, Kaitlyn Sadtler, Shiva Ayyadurai
External videos
video icon Scientists You Must Know: Robert Langer, You want to put yourself in the position where you'll make the discoveries for tomorrow, Science History Institute
video icon Hundreds of millions of people a year across the world benefit from the technologies that rest on the work of Robert Langer., Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering 2015

Robert Samuel Langer Jr. FREng[1] (born August 29, 1948) is an American biotechnologist, businessman, chemical engineer, chemist, and inventor. He is one of the nine Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[3]

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.

Langer holds over 1,400 granted or pending patents.[4] He is one of the world's most highly cited researchers and his h-index is now (according to Google Scholar, 2023-09-16) 323 with currently over 427,000 citations.[5] He is a widely recognized and cited researcher in biotechnology, especially in the fields of drug delivery systems and tissue engineering.[4][6][7]

He is the most cited engineer in history[8] and one of the 10 most cited individuals in any field,[9] having authored over 1,500 scientific papers. Langer is also a prolific businessman, having been behind the participation in the founding of over 40 biotechnology companies including the well-known American pharmaceutical company, Moderna.

Langer's research laboratory at MIT is the largest biomedical engineering lab in the world; maintaining over $10 million in annual grants and over 100 researchers.[10][11] He has been awarded numerous leading prizes in recognition of his work.

  1. ^ a b "List of Fellows". Archived from the original on June 8, 2016. Retrieved October 28, 2014.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference mcguire2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Seligson, Hannah (November 24, 2012). "Hatching Ideas, and Companies, by the Dozens at M.I.T." New York Times. Retrieved November 26, 2012. A chemical engineer by training, Dr. Langer has helped start 25 companies and has 811 patents, issued or pending, to his name. ...
  4. ^ a b Robert S. Langer publications indexed by Google Scholar Edit this at Wikidata
  5. ^ "Robert Langer". scholar.google.com. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
  6. ^ "1040 Highly Cited Researchers (h>100) according to their Google Scholar Citations public profiles". Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  7. ^ Shukman, David (February 3, 2015). "Drug-delivery pioneer wins £1m engineering prize". BBC News Science & Environment. Retrieved February 3, 2015.
  8. ^ Gura, T. (2014). "The art of entrepreneurship". Science. 346 (6213): 1146. Bibcode:2014Sci...346.1146G. doi:10.1126/science.346.6213.1146. PMID 25430772.
  9. ^ "Robert Langer". AD Scientific Index 2024.
  10. ^ O'Neill, Kathryn M. (July 20, 2006). "Colleagues honor Langer for 30 years of innovation". MIT News. Retrieved February 6, 2014.
  11. ^ Dutton, Gail (October 30, 2023). "How Church and Langer Make the Impossible Possible". GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. Retrieved September 15, 2024.