Robert Langer Wins Kyoto Prize

Robert S. Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has won the $500,000 Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology from Japan’s Inamori Foundation. He is among three recipients of the 2014 Kyoto Prize, which honors significant contributions to the betterment of society.

“I’m thrilled,” Langer says of winning the award. “I look at the people who have won this prize before, and for me to be lucky enough to be in that company, it’s a thrill and an honor.”

Langer is best known for his pioneering contributions to tissue engineering, where he applies biodegradable polymer technologies to construct scaffolds for cell growth, and for developing drug delivery systems for the controlled release of proteins, nucleic acids, and other bioactive molecules.

The other two recipients of this year’s Kyoto Prize are mathematician Edward Witten, who won the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, and artist Fukumi Shimura, who won the Kyoto Prize in Arts & Philosophy. The awards will be presented on Nov. 10 in Kyoto, Japan.