Dr Robert Langer: Speed Interview

Dr Robert Langer, winner of the 2015 QEPrize for engineering, shares a few interesting facts with us.

If you weren’t an engineer, what job would you be doing?

Maybe developing a new science curriculum that could be accessible, motivating and enjoyed by the masses.

If you could meet one person from history, who would it be?

Thomas Edison.

If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

The ability to heal.

What invention would you like to see in your lifetime?

A time machine...but it won’t happen.

What piece of advice would you give to your teenage self?

If I had any advice, it would be to dream big dreams about how you can do things to help people and to improve the world. And there may be many times when you try to do something, when you try to develop a new product, or create a new engineering principle or whatever your dream is, that people tell you that it’s impossible, that it will never work. But I think that is very rarely true. I think if you really believe in yourself, if you are persistent and work hard, there is very little that is truly impossible.