Steven R. Little | |
---|---|
Born | December 11, 1977 |
Alma mater | Youngstown State University (BS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Controlled release, Pharmaceutical science, Drug delivery systems, Immunotherapies, Biomaterials, Regenerative medicine |
Institutions | University of Pittsburgh |
Doctoral advisor | Robert Langer |
Website | www |
Steven R. Little (born 1977) is an American chemical engineer and pharmaceutical scientist. He currently holds the title of department chair, distinguished professor, and George M. and Eva M. Bevier Endowed Chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering. He also holds secondary appointments in bioengineering, pharmaceutical sciences, immunology, ophthalmology and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.
Little received his BS in chemical engineering from Youngstown State University, and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying under Institute Professor Robert S. Langer. His dissertation was “Poly(β-Amino Ester)s as pH Sensitive Biomaterials for Microparticulate Genetic Vaccine Delivery.” [1]
Following his PhD in 2005, Little joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh John A. Swanson School of Engineering in 2006 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to the rank of associate professor as well as chair of the department of chemical engineering in 2012; William Kepler Whiteford Endowed Professor in 2015; and distinguished professor by Chancellor Patrick Gallagher in 2021. [2] In 2024 he was appointed the Swanson School's George M. and Eva M. Bevier Endowed Chair. [3]
His research focuses on therapies that are biomimetic and replicate the biological function and interactions of living entities using synthetic systems. Areas of study include bioengineering, chemistry, chemical engineering, ophthalmology, and immunology, and the health issues addressed include autoimmune disease, battlefield wounds, cancer, HIV, Type I Diabetes, ocular disease, and organ transplantation.
He is the Principal Investigator of Little Lab, housed in Benedum Hall of Engineering, and the co-founder of Qrono Inc., [4] a pharmaceutical startup company based in Pittsburgh and focused on next generation cancer treatments. [5]
Little was elected as a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society in 2015; [6] the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2016; [7] and the American Association for the Advancement of Science [8] and National Academy of Inventors [9] in 2021. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) elected him as Fellow in 2022, [10] and Little was among eight members of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) selected for elevation to Fellow status in 2024. [11]
He was elected to the board of directors of the Society for Biomaterials and served in that role from 2013-2015. [12] In June 2018 the Controlled Release Society appointed Little to its board as a director-at-large through 2021. [13]
In 2012, the Society for Biomaterials named Little as the recipient of its Young Investigator Award [14] and in 2018 the Controlled Release Society named Little the recipient of its Young Investigator Award. [15] [16] The Controlled Release Society in 2020 elected Little to its College of Fellows [17] and followed in 2021 by presenting Little with its Distinguished Service Award. [18] Little has received over 40 national and international awards including:
His teaching awards include the University of Pittsburgh Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award [30] and a Carnegie Science Award for Post-Secondary Education. [31] Community recognition includes Pittsburgh Magazine’s 40 Under 40, [32] named a “Fast Tracker” by the Pittsburgh Business Times, [33] and one of five individuals in Pittsburgh who are “reshaping our world” by Pop City Media.
Little serves on the board of directors for EduNations, [34] an organization that establishes educational infrastructure by building schools, training teachers and providing children with free education in Sierra Leone, Africa.
Robert Samuel Langer Jr. FREng is an American biotechnologist, businessman, chemical engineer, chemist, and inventor. He is one of the nine Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Kendall Newcomb Houk is a Distinguished Research Professor in Organic Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research group studies organic, organometallic, and biological reactions using the tools of computational chemistry. This work involves quantum mechanical calculations, often with density functional theory, and molecular dynamics, either quantum dynamics for small systems or force fields such as AMBER, for solution and protein simulations.
Tobin Jay Marks is an inorganic chemistry Professor, the Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry, Professor of Material Science and Engineering, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Professor of Applied Physics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Among the themes of his research are synthetic organo-f-element and early-transition metal organometallic chemistry, polymer chemistry, materials chemistry, homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, molecule-based photonic materials, superconductivity, metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, and biological aspects of transition metal chemistry.
Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi is an American chemist and Nobel laureate, known for her wide-ranging work spanning both chemistry and biology. She coined the term "bioorthogonal chemistry" for chemical reactions compatible with living systems. Her recent efforts include synthesis of chemical tools to study cell surface sugars called glycans and how they affect diseases such as cancer, inflammation, and viral infections like COVID-19. At Stanford University, she holds the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professorship in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Bertozzi is also an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and is the former director of the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Chad Alexander Mirkin is an American chemist. He is the George B. Rathmann professor of chemistry, professor of medicine, professor of materials science and engineering, professor of biomedical engineering, and professor of chemical and biological engineering, and director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly at Northwestern University.
The Swanson School of Engineering is the engineering school of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1846, the Swanson School of Engineering is the second or third oldest in the United States.
Krzysztof "Kris" Matyjaszewski is a Polish-American chemist. He is the J.C. Warner Professor of the Natural Sciences at the Carnegie Mellon University Matyjaszewski is best known for the discovery of atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), a novel method of polymer synthesis that has revolutionized the way macromolecules are made.
Cato T. Laurencin FREng SLMH is an American engineer, physician, scientist, innovator and a University Professor of the University of Connecticut.
Sung Wan Kim was a South Korean-American academic who worked as a distinguished professor of pharmaceutics and pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Utah. He is the founder and co-director of the University of Utah's Center for Controlled Chemical Delivery.
Nicholas (Nikolaos) A. Peppas is a chemical and biomedical engineer whose leadership in biomaterials science and engineering, drug delivery, bionanotechnology, pharmaceutical sciences, chemical and polymer engineering has provided seminal foundations based on the physics and mathematical theories of nanoscale, macromolecular processes and drug/protein transport and has led to numerous biomedical products or devices.
Kristi S. Anseth is the Tisone Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, an Associate Professor of Surgery, and a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her main research interests are the design of synthetic biomaterials using hydrogels, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine.
Jindřich Henry Kopeček was born in Strakonice, Czech Republic, as the son of Jan and Herta Zita (Krombholz) Kopeček. He is distinguished professor of pharmaceutical chemistry and distinguished professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. Kopeček is also an honorary professor at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. His research focuses on biorecognition of macromolecules, bioconjugate chemistry, drug delivery systems, self-assembled biomaterials, and drug-free macromolecular therapeutics.
Samir Mitragotri is an Indian American professor at Harvard University, an inventor, an entrepreneur, and a researcher in the fields of drug delivery and biomaterials. He is currently the Hiller Professor of Bioengineering and Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Prior to 2017, he was the Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Chair Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara.
Vivian Thomas Stannett, Camille Dreyfus Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering and dean emeritus of the graduate school at North Carolina State University, was an English American chemist known for his contributions to the field of polymer science. In 1981 he received North Carolina's top science honor, the North Carolina Science Award and Gold Medal, and in 1995 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, an organization of the United States National Academies, for advancements in transport processes and radiation chemistry in polymers.
Yueh-Lin (Lynn) Loo is a Malaysian-born chemical engineer and the Theodora D. '78 and William H. Walton III '74 Professor in Engineering at Princeton University, where she is also the Director of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. She is known for inventing nanotransfer printing. Loo was elected a Fellow of the Materials Research Society in 2020.
Tan Weihong is a Chinese chemist. He is the University of Florida Distinguished Professor, V. T. and Louise Jackson Professor of Chemistry at the University of Florida, and also the Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Professor of Biology, and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics at Hunan University in China. He was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2015 and The World Academy of Sciences in 2016.
Tehshik Peter Yoon is a Canadian-born chemist who studies the new reaction methods for organic synthesis with the use of catalysis. Yoon currently is a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the chemistry department. For his contributions to science, he has received numerous awards including the Beckman Young Investigator Award and National Science Foundation CAREER Award.
Guillermo Antonio Ameer is the Daniel Hale Williams Professor of biomedical engineering at the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and Surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University and is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering Society, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Materials Research Society, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is an engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur.
Milan Mrksich is an American chemist. He is the Henry Wade Rogers Professor at Northwestern University with appointments in chemistry, biomedical engineering and cell & developmental biology. He also served as both the founding director of the Center for Synthetic Biology and as an associate director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern. Mrksich also served as the Vice President for Research of Northwestern University.
David A. Vorp is an American bioengineer, researcher, entrepreneur, and academic administrator noted for his contributions to aortic aneurysm biomechanics and pathobiology, and tissue engineered vascular grafts. He currently holds the titles of Associate Dean for Research at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering and the John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering, with secondary appointments in the departments of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Surgery, Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, and the Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. He also serves as the co-director of the Center for Medical Innovation., the acting director of the university's GRID Institute, and the director of the Vascular Bioengineering Laboratory.