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Biomaterials and How They Will Change our Lives

Robert S. Langer Jr. SCD '74: March 8, 2002; Running Time: 01:00:30

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

On February 19, 2002, Dr. Langer received the 2002 Charles Stark Draper Prize for inventing medical drug delivery technologies that prolong lives and ease suffering for millions every year. This is Dr. Langer's first MIT public lecture since receiving this distinguished award from the National Academy of Engineering.

Lecture Details

Location: 34-101 Edgerton Hall

About the Speaker

Robert S. Langer Jr. SCD '74

Institute Professor and Kenneth J. Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
2002 Draper Prize Award Recipient

Robert Langer has more than 500 issued or pending patents worldwide. In 2005, Langer received the $500,000 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, America's top prize in medicine. In 2002, he received the Charles Stark Draper Prize, considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for engineers, from the National Academy of Engineering. Among numerous other awards Langer has received are the Heinz Award for Technology, Economy and Employment (2003), the John Fritz Award (2003) (given previously to inventors such as Thomas Edison and Orville Wright) and the General Motors Kettering Award for Cancer Research (2004). Langer is one of very few people ever elected to all three U.S. National Academies and the youngest in history (age 43) ever to receive this distinction.

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.