Page 143 - REV T-I JOURNAL INTERIOR ISSUU 18 2-3

Technology and Innovation, Vol. 18, pp. 219-225, 2016 ISSN 1949-8241 • E-ISSN 1949-825X
Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.21300/18.2-3.2016.219
Copyright © 2016 National Academy of Inventors. www.technologyandinnovation.org

THE NAI FELLOW PROFILE: AN INTERVIEW WITH
DR. ROBERT S. LANGER

Robert S. Langer and Kimberly A. Macuare 2
1
1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
2 National Academy of Inventors, Tampa, FL, USA

In a recent interview with T&I, inventor and professor Dr. Robert S. Langer discusses his most
recent work and weighs in on the symbiotic relationship between universities and companies
in the tech transfer arena, the importance of teaching students to ask good questions as well as
to give good answers, and the ongoing motivation that impels him to excellence.

INTRODUCTION
In our continuing series of profiles, which honor
academic invention and inventors, Technology and
Innovation (T&I) is pleased to present Dr. Robert
S. Langer—biotechnologist, chemical engineer, and
serial entrepreneur—as the subject of this issue’s NAI
Fellow Profile. Langer is one of thirteen Institute Pro-
fessors at MIT, the highest honor awarded to faculty,
and the head of Langer Lab at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the largest
academic biomedical engineering labs in the world.
Langer holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from
Cornell University and a Sc.D. in chemical engineer-
ing from MIT. At a time when chemical engineers
rarely did crossover work in medicine, he took a
postdoctoral position with Dr. Judah Folkman, a
medical researcher who was working on tumor angio-
genesis. This allowed Langer to forgo the multiple
job offers he received in the petroleum industry, a
much more traditional chemical engineering arena,
to focus on his passion: helping others. From that
beginning sprung a career in biomedical engineering
that has spanned five decades and led to important
breakthroughs in drug delivery, tissue engineering, (photo courtesy of Robert Langer)
_____________________
Accepted July 1, 2016.
Address correspondence to:
Robert S. Langer, PhD, Langer Lab, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 76-661, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA.
®
Kimberly A. Macuare, PhD, Assistant Editor, Technology and Innovation, Journal of the National Academy of Inventors , USF Research Park, 3702 Spectrum
Boulevard, Suite 165, Tampa, FL 33612, USA. Tel +1 (813) 974-1347; E-mail: tijournal@academyofinventors.org

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