KEYNOTE Speakers

Patrick Couvreur, Ph.D.

Patrick Couvreur is an Emeritus Professor of Pharmacy at the Paris-Saclay University, member of the French Académie des Sciences. He has held many important national and international academic positions, including Director of the UMR CNRS 8612 and Founder and Director of the Doctoral School “Therapeutic Innovation”.

For 30 years (1985-2015), P. Couvreur was also an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Louvain (Belgium). He was/is a member of the board of governors of many international scientific organizations (FIP, CRS, EUFEPS, APGI, etc.). Patrick Couvreur has served in many scientific committees in France. His contributions in the field of drug delivery and nanomedicine are recognized around the world with around 600 peer review research publications, some in prestigious journals like Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Materials, Angewandte Chemie, Journal of the American Chemical Society, etc.). He has supervised >100 PhD students. His interdisciplinary research aimes at developing new nanomedicines for the treatment of severe diseases, incl. cancer, neurological disorders, and intracellular infectious diseases.

Patrick Couvreur’s research led to the founding of three start-up companies (Bioalliance, Medsqual and Squal Pharma). Bioalliance (now ONXEO) entered the stock market in 2005 and a nanomedicine invented in Couvreur’s lab has reached a complete phase III clinical trial for the treatment of resistant hepatocarcinoma.

The major scientific contribution of Patrick Couvreur to the Pharmaceutical Sciences is also recognized by numerous national and international awards, the most recent of which are the 2022 Presidential Award of EUFEPS, the 2023 Blaise Pascal Medal of the European Academy of Sciences, the Biomaterialia Golden Medal 2024, the 2024 Founder Award of the CRS. He is a Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Ghent (Belgium) and the University of Montréal (Canada). The appointment as a member of ten academies is another recognition of his major scientific and scholarly contributions. By a decree of the President of the French Republic, Patrick Couvreur has been appointed as “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur” and “Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite”.

Anthony J. Hickey, Ph.D.

Dr. Anthony Hickey is Professor Emeritus of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics of the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, and Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Great Britain, the Royal Society of Biology, the Royal Society of Medicine and the National Academy of Inventors.

He received the Research Achievement Award of the Particulate Presentations and Design Division of the Powder Technology Society of Japan, the David W Grant Award in Physical Pharmacy of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists; Thomas T Mercer Joint Prize for Excellence in Inhaled Medicines and Pharmaceutical Aerosols of the American Association for Aerosol Research and the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine, the Ralph Shangraw Memorial Award for Excipient and Excipient Technology of the International Pharmaceutical Excipient Consortium Foundation.

He is founder (and formerly President and CEO) of Cirrus Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; founder (formerly CSO) of Oriel Therapeutics, Inc,; CEO of Astartein, LLC. and; Scientific Advisor and Chair of the scientific advisory Board of Belhaven Biopharma and TFF Pharmaceuticals; Chair of the USP Joint Sub-Committee on Nanotechnology, Member of the USP Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms Expert Committee (DFEC) and Aerosols Sub-Committee of the DFEC of the United States Pharmacopeia. He supports multidisciplinary research and development programs in the field of pulmonary drug and vaccine delivery for the treatment and prevention of a variety of diseases.

Robert S. Langer, Ph.D.

Robert Langer is one of 9 Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); being an Institute Professor is the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member. He has written over 1,600 articles, which have been cited over 434,000 times; his H-index of 327 is the highest of any engineer in history and the 6th highest of any individual in any field.

His patents have licensed or sublicensed to over 400 companies; he is a cofounder of a number of companies including Moderna. Dr Langer served as Chairman of the FDA’s Science Board (its highest advisory board) from 1999-2002. His over 220 awards include both the United States National Medal of Science and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation (he is one of 3 living individuals to have received both these honors), the Charles Stark Draper Prize (often called the Engineering Nobel Prize), Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Albany Medical Center Prize, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Kyoto Prize, Wolf Prize for Chemistry, Millennium Technology Prize, Priestley Medal (highest award of the American Chemical Society), Gairdner Prize, Hoover Medal, Dreyfus Prize in Chemical Sciences, BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine, Balzan Prize, the Dr. Paul Janssen Award, and most recently, the 2024 Kavli Prize Award in Nanoscience.

He holds 42 honorary doctorates including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Northwestern, and has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors.

Nicholas A. Peppas, Ph.D.

Professor Nicholas A. Peppas is a biomedical/chemical engineer, materials scientist, and nanotechnologist whose research contributions, innovations, inventions have led to twenty chemical, medical and pharmaceutical products.

Peppas is an elected member of the US-National Academy of Engineering, Academy of Medicine, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academy of Inventors, Academia Europaea, Canadian Engineering Academy, Indian National Engineering Academy, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Korean Academy of Science Technology, National Academy of France, Royal Academy of Spain, Academy of Athens, Greece, Academy of Romanian Scientists, Mexican Academy of Sciences, Academy of Texas, Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) and Italian Society for Medical And Biological Sciences.

He has served as a Visiting Professor in the Universities of Geneva, Paris-Sud, Santiago de Compostela, Madrid, Lisbon, Parma, Pavia, Napoli, Hacettepe/Ankara, Athens, Berlin, Hebrew University/Jerusalem, Hoshi University/Tokyo, Nanyang University/Singapore, Sichuan University, Peking Medical College.

His group has set the fundamentals of flow and transport phenomena in numerous medical problems, based on the principles of engineering science and biology. He has numerous books, 2,050 publications and is cited in more than 230,000 references (H=215). Honored by 200 Awards including NAE Founders Award, NAM Adam Yarmolinsky, Pharmaceutical Global Leader Award, and the Biomaterials Global Impact Awards.

Peppas holds a D.Eng. from NTU Athens, a ScD. from MIT and is the recipient of 13 honorary doctorates and professorships from France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Slovenia, Romania, Israel and China. He is the Editor of Regenerative Biomaterials (Oxford) and Past-President of CRS, SFB and the International Sigma Xi research organization.