The first episode of the 2012 season of Prized Science highlights the work of Robert Langer, Institute Professor at MIT. His influential research on tissue engineering and controlled drug release earned him the 2012 American Chemical Society Priestley Medal, the highest honor given by the world’s largest scientific society.

To get a sense of Langer’s prolific career, just look at the numbers: He runs one of the largest academic laboratories in the world, with nearly 100 members. He is the author of an unprecedented 1,100 research papers. He has approximately 800 issued and pending patents worldwide. And he has had a hand in creating some 25 companies. All of this is in service of his primary goal— to use chemistry and chemical engineering to help improve people’s lives.

Prized Science explains how the research behind American Chemical Society awards impacts everyday life. In the coming weeks, we will release five episodes of Prized Science, highlighting new cancer treatments using gold nanoparticles, theories behind protein folding, the effects of dust particles in the atmosphere, and improving chemistry education.