Honors for Langer, Rossjohn and Rai

Langer receives a Kalvi Prize

Robert Langer

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters named Robert Langer one of three 2024 Kavli Prize Laureates in Nanoscience. Langer is being recognized for revolutionizing the field of nanomedicine by demonstrating how engineering nanoscale materials can advance biomedical research and applications.

Langer is one of nine Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Langer lab studies and engineers polymers and lipids to deliver drugs, such as nucleic acids and proteins. He was the first to develop nano-engineered materials that enabled the controlled release of drug molecules and showed that nanoparticles containing proteins can be used for vaccination. Langer won both the U.S. National Medal of Science and the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation. He has also been awarded the Charles Stark Draper Prize, the Millennium Prize, the Priestley Medal, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and many others. Langer is a fellow of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors.

“The three scientists, Langer, Alivisatos and Mirkin, have broadened the scientific field of nanoscience, building from fundamental research,” Bodil Holst, chair of the Kavli Prize Committee in Nanoscience, said in a press release. “By scientific curiosity, they have become inventors for the future of nanoscience and biomedicine.”

Rossjohn wins lifetime achievement award

Jamie Rossjohn

The Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute honored Jamie Rossjohn with the 2024 Ceppellini Award. This award is named for Ruggero Ceppellini, a pioneer of immunogenetics. Rossjohn was recognized for his significant contributions to understanding the events central to cellular immunity in the context of infectious disease and autoimmune disorders.

Rossjohn is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. His lab investigates the molecular bases underpinning protective and aberrant immunity. This includes studying how T-cell receptors and natural killer cells recognize peptides presented on major histocompatibility complex molecules and how T-cell receptors sense lipids and metabolites. Rossjohn was recently elected a fellow of the Royal Society and a member of European Molecular Biology Organization.

“It came as a bit of a shock to me … to be recognised in this manner, as some very heavy hitters have come before me in receiving the Ceppellini Award,” Rossjohn said in a Monash press release. “It’s a testament to our sustained research in this area for the last 20-plus years, and of the collaborations, research fellows and students who have worked alongside me. These findings would not have been possible without … the ‘think big’ research environment that Monash fosters.”

Mississippi State honors Rai for teaching

Aswathy Rai

Mississippi State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, or CALS, and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station awarded Aswathy Rai the CALS Undergraduate Teaching Award-Upper Level and CALS Teacher of the Year Award. Rai was recognized for her excellence in teaching, research and service throughout the academic year. In addition to the NACTA Award, she has also received MSU’s Donald Zacharias Early Career Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award, which recognized her excellent student engagement, teaching clarity and organization, teaching methods and enthusiasm.

Rai is an assistant teaching professor of biochemistry, nutrition and health promotion at MSU. She is an educator and faculty advisor for the Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students, Women in STEM Departmental Outreach Membership, MSU ASBMB student chapter and the Undergraduate Biochemistry Club. In 2023, Rai was honored with the Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine Superior Faculty Teaching Award, the CALS Undergraduate Teaching Award for Upper-Level Courses and the CALS Teacher of the Year Award. She is also an ASBMB Today contributor and has written about many papers from ASBMB journals.

In an MSU press release, a colleague described Rai as “a teacher every inspiring instructor should want to be like, who sets a high standard for her students.”