Dr. Robert “Bob” Langer is one of 12 Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which is the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member. He holds over 1,400 granted or pending patents, has written over 1,500 scientific papers and is one of the world's most cited researchers with an h-index of 305 and currently over 376,000 citations. This is the highest of any engineer in history and the second highest of any individual in any field.

A prolific entrepreneur, his patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 400 companies, and he has participated in the founding of over 40 biotech companies including Moderna. Dr. Langer served as Chairman of the FDA’s Science Board—its highest advisory board—from 1999-2002.

He holds 40 honorary doctorates from Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, Northwestern University and others, and has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors.

He has received over 220 awards, including the United States National Medal of Science and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation and is one of three living individuals to have received both these honors. Addition awards include the Charles Stark Draper Prize, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Albany Medical Center Prize, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Kyoto Prize, Wolf Prize for Chemistry, Millennium Technology Prize, Priestley Medal, Gairdner Prize, Hoover Medal, Dreyfus Prize in Chemical Sciences, BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine, and the Balzan Prize for Biomaterials for Nanomedicine and Tissue Engineering.