Robert S. Langer, ScD

Robert S. Langer, ScD, has been a member of HCRx’s SAB since 2013. He is one of 9 Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MITs highest rank. He has written over 1,600 articles, which have been cited over 403,000 times; his h-index of 316 is the highest of any engineer in history and the 2nd highest of any individual in any field in the world. Dr. Langer previously served as a member of the FDA’s SCIENCE Board from 1995 – 2002, including as its chairman from 1999-2002. He has helped start 41 companies including Moderna, and more than 400 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies have licensed or sublicensed his patents. Over the course of his career, Dr. Langer has received over 220 major awards including the 2013 Wolf Prize in Chemistry, which is considered the Israeli Nobel Prize; the 2006 United States National Medal of Science; the 2011 United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation; the Charles Stark Draper Prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for engineers; the 2014 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences; the 2015 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering; the 2014 Kyoto Prize, the 2021 BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine, the 2022 Balzan Prize, and the 2024 Kavli Prize. He has also been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors, the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Langer currently serves on the board of directors for 10 companies and institutions (Arsenal Medical, PureTech , Seer Bio, McGovern Institute, Boston Children’s Hospital, Verseau, LikeMinds, Teal Bio, Vivtex, and Souffle Therapeutics). Dr. Langer has received 45 honorary doctorates including honorary degrees from both Harvard, Oxford and Yale. He received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and his ScD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in chemical engineering.