LANGER, ROBERT S.

LANGER, ROBERT S. (1948– ) U.S. biomedical engineer. Born in Albany, New York, Langer received his B.Sc. from Cornell University (1970) and D.Sc. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1974) in chemical engineering. After postdoctoral cancer research at Harvard Medical School with Judah Folkman, he returned to MIT (1977), where he became Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering and director of the research laboratory named after him. His research interests initially concerned the design of polymers compatible with biological tissues which would allow the controlled release of drugs and macromolecules into the blood stream and at sites affected by diseases such as cancer. His interests subsequently included the application of materials science and biotechnology to controlled drug delivery, including gene therapy, and developing biodegradable systems which will serve as templates for generating new tissues and organs. Langer is an acknowledged leader in innovative bio-technology and the Langer Laboratory is preeminent in this field. His many honors include the first Gairdner Award to an engineer (1996) and the Draper Prize from the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (2002). Uniquely, he is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1992), the National Academy of Engineering (1992), and the National Academy of Sciences (1992). He served as member, then chairman, of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Science Board (1995–2002). He received honorary doctorates from the Haifa Technion and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (Michael Denman (2nd ed.)