ARLINGTON, Va., February 26, 2002 --- Biomedical engineer Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has won the 2002 Charles Stark Draper Prize given by the National Academy of Engineering.

Langer was cited for discovering engineering principles that would allow large molecules, including some promising drugs for cancer and other diseases, to be released from plastic delivery systems in a controlled way. One of his biodegradable polymers is used in a brain cancer treatment, the first such chemotherapy delivered directly to a tumor.

Langer holds about 400 patents licensed or sublicensed to about 80 companies. Some of those companies were launched using his ideas. His students have gone on to take positions with more than 80 academic institutions around the world, where they are advancing chemical engineering and bioengineering education.

Langer is the Kenneth J. Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at MIT and a "pioneer in applying engineering principles to medical problems."

The Draper Prize was established by the National Academy of Engineering with an $8 million endowment from the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. The prize honors innovative engineering achievements or an extended body of work involving an invention that contributes to human welfare and freedom.

Contact:
Frank Blanchard
(703) 528-2430

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