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The 2015 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering has been awarded to the groundbreaking chemical engineer Dr. Robert Langer for his revolutionary advances and leadership in engineering at the interface of chemistry and medicine. The QEPrize is a global £1 million prize that celebrates the engineers responsible for a groundbreaking innovation that has been of global benefit to humanity.
The AIChE is proud to have Dr. Langer among its members as an active AIChE Fellow. Summarizing Dr. Langer's background and his worthiness for the QEPrinze, the official press release described his work as follows:
Dr Langer is one of 11 Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA. This is MIT’s highest honour. His laboratory at MIT — with over 100 students, postdoctoral students, and visiting scientists at any one time — is the world's largest academic biomedical engineering laboratory. He has over 1,000 issued and pending patents, over 200 major prizes to his name, and he is the most cited engineer in history (Science, 2014). His work has helped lay the foundation for a myriad of health innovations, including the long-lasting brain cancer treatment Giladel® Wafer; the prostate cancer and endometriosis treatments Lupron Depot®, Zoladex®, and Decapeptyl SR; the schizophrenia treatment Respirdal® Consta®; the diabetes treatment Bydureon®; and the drug-coated cardiovascular stents that alone have benefited 10 million heart patients.
Dr. Langer's professional achievements are many, and you can read more about his work in the full press release here. You can also read his biography here.
In the video, you'll hear more about the QEPrize in chemical engineering from the judges, as well as learn about how and why they chose Dr. Langer for this year's prize.