Robert Langer, HMS senior lecturer on surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital, was one of 11 inventors awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Langer also won the National Award of Science in 2006, one of only three Americans to have won both the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. He is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and member of the faculty of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.
Langer is renowned for his revolutionary work on new and different ways to administer drugs to patients. A biomedical engineer who focuses on biomaterials, Langer has developed a variety of novel drug-delivery systems based on polymers, including materials that can release drugs continuously over a prolonged period of time. In the field of nanotechnology, he is developing particles that precisely target disease sites, including tumors.
The National Medal of Technology and Innovation was established in 1980 and is administered for the White House by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Patent and Trademark Office. The award recognizes those who have made lasting contributions to America’s competitiveness and quality of life and helped strengthen the nation’s technological workforce. Nominees are selected by a distinguished independent committee representing the private and public sectors.
Elizabeth Rider, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, was selected by the National Academies of Practice to receive the prestigious Nicholas Andrew Cummings Award.
Rider is the Director of Academic Programs for the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Director of Programs for Communication Skills at the Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is co-chair of the Medicine Academy and a senior fellow of the National Academies of Practice.
The Nicholas Andrews Cummings Award is given annually to an individual who has made extraordinary and enduring contributions nationally to interprofessional healthcare education and practice. Rider was recognized for her many outstanding contributions to interprofessional healthcare and education at the local, national, and international levels, and for her distinguished career as a physician and educator. The Cummings Award was presented to Rider at National Academies of Practice’s annual Membership Induction Banquet in Washington, D.C.
Kun Ping Lu, HMS professor of medicine, was recently named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Lu was elected as an AAAS fellow for his contributions to signal transduction mechanisms through controlling prolyl isomerization of key molecules in cell cycle control, tumor formation, and onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Currently, Lu is a faculty member in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Division of Hematology/Oncology and Cancer Center.
Lu is among 702 members to be recognized this year for his efforts to advance science. Lu and other fellows will be honored during the 2013 AAAS members meeting in February.
