Director Emeritus

Langer, one of 11 Institute Professors at MIT, is one of the most respected researchers in the world and the most cited engineer in history. He has written more than 1,500 articles and has more than 1,400 issued and pending patents. He is among a handful of people to have been elected to all three of the U.S. National Academies; and one of only three living people to have received both the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. He has also received the Charles Stark Draper Prize, the Millennium Prize, the Priestley Medal, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Kyoto Prize, and many other awards. Langer has been a founder of, or scientific advisor to, dozens of biotechnology companies, and held science policy advisory roles including the FDA Science Board chair. He received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and his Sc.D. from MIT, both in chemical engineering. An Institute board member since 2003, he is now a Director Emeritus.