Langer

Robert Langer ’70 has been awarded the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering for “revolutionary advances and leadership in engineering at the interface of chemistry and medicine.”

The 1 million pound prize recognizes engineers responsible for innovations that benefit humanity. The queen will present Langer the prize at Buckingham Palace later this year.

Langer, who has a chemical engineering bachelor’s degree from Cornell, is the David H. Koch Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he leads the largest biomedical engineering lab in the world. His research is in engineering polymers to control the delivery of drugs in the body.

According to the prize citation, Langer has more than 1,000 issued and pending patents and more than 200 major prizes to his name. His work has laid the foundation for many health innovations, among them treatments for brain and prostate cancer, as well as for schizophrenia and endometriosis.

Last December Langer was named the 2015 Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year. He will be honored in November at the annual Entrepreneurship Summit in New York City.