Robert Langer is the Kenneth J. Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his Bachelor's Degree from Cornell University in 1970 and his Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974, both in chemical engineering.

He is the Chairman of the United States Food and Drug Administration's SCIENCE Board, the FDA's highest advisory board. Dr. Langer has written 704 articles, 400 patents and 420 abstracts. The recipient of more than 100 major awards, Langer received the $500,000 Charles Stark Draper Prize, the world's most prestigious engineering prize, from the National Academy of Engineers in 2002. Both Forbes Magazine and BioWorld have named Langer as one of the 25 most important individuals in biotechnology in the world and Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most important people in America (America's Best) and the one of the 18 most important individuals in Science and Medicine in the United States.