Dr Robert Langer, MIT, Discusses Challenges in Entrepreneurship, Translating Science to Business, with Acorda's Dr Ron Cohen

Ron Cohen, MD is President, CEO and founder of Acorda Therapeutics, Inc, a public biotechnology company developing therapies for disorders of the nervous system, including Parkinson’s disease and migraine. Dr Cohen previously was a principal in the startup and an officer of Advanced Tissue Sciences, Inc, a biotechnology company engaged in the growth of human organ tissues for transplantation uses. He served as Chair of the Board of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and continues to serve as a board member. He is also a Director on the Board of VBL Therapeutics, and was a Director on the Board of Dyax Corp. until its acquisition in 2016. He also previously served as Chair of the Emerging Companies Section of the BIO Board and as Director and Chair of the New York Biotechnology Association (NYBA). Dr Cohen is a recipient of the NY CEO Lifetime Achievement Award and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the New York Metropolitan Region. He was named Neuroinvestment’s CEO of the Year, is an inductee of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association’s “Spinal Cord Injury Hall of Fame,” and was awarded Columbia University’s Alumni Medal for Distinguished Service.Dr Cohen received the Burke Award from Burke Rehabilitation Hospital for his contributions to helping people with disabilities gain independence. He has been recognized by the New York Biotechnology Association as the NYBA “The Cures Start Here” Business Leader of the Year, by the Westchester County Association as its Leadership Award recipient, and by PharmaVOICE Magazine as one of the 100 Most Inspirational People in the Biopharmaceutical Industry. Dr. Cohen received his B.A. degree with honors in Psychology from Princeton University, and his M.D. from the Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia Medical Center, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine.

Robert Langer is an Institute Professor at MIT (there are 13 Institute Professors at MIT; being an Institute Professor is the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member). Over 300 of his trainees are now professors, 17 have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, 12 have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, 21 to the National Academy of Inventors and 35 to the Technology Review 35. His h-index of 251 is the highest of any engineer in history and he has over 1,300 issued and pending patents worldwide. His patents have licensed or sublicensed to over 350 companies. He served as Chairman of the FDA’s SCIENCE BOARD (it’s highest advisory board) from 1999-2002. Dr Langer is also one of very few individuals ever elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors. He is one of four living individuals to have received both the United States National Medal of Science and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation. In 2015, Dr Langer received the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the world’s largest engineering prize. He has also received the Charles Stark Draper Prize (sometimes referred to as the engineering Nobel Prize), the Albany Medical Center Prize, the Wolf Prize for Chemistry, the Millennium Technology Prize, the Priestley Medal (highest award of the American Chemical Society), the Gairdner Prize, the Kyoto Prize, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and the Lemelson-MIT Prize, for being “one of history’s most prolific inventors in medicine.” Dr Langer holds 33 honorary doctorates including honorary degrees from Harvard and Yale.