When just sixteen years old, Vladimir P. Torchilin so impressed officials at the world-renowned Moscow State University that they admitted him a full two years early to one of the most academically rigorous science programs in the world. He did not disappoint. An ambitious young scientist, Torchilin had earned an MS in polymer science by age twenty-two and a PhD in chemical kinetics and catalysis by age twenty-five, when he joined the faculty at Moscow State University as a junior scientist. He was one of the youngest scientists ever to receive the doctor of science degree in chemistry and to win the Lenin prize, the highest scientific award in the former Soviet Union. Nearly three decades and several prestigious appointments later, Torchilin, professor and chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Northeastern's Bouvé College of Health Sciences for the past five years, has received countless honors for his innovative research in such areas as drug delivery systems, drug targeting, cancer immunology and imaging agents. He holds more than 45 patents, has received more than $5.5 million in grants, has published over 300 papers and has sat on the editorial boards of 14 highly respected scientific journals. Mansoor M. Amiji is an associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Bouve College of Health Sciences, at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr Amiji received his undergraduate degree in pharmacy (magna cum laude) from Northeastern University in 1988 and a doctoral degree in pharmaceutics from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, in the summer of 1992. Dr Amiji returned to Northeastern University as an assistant professor in January 1993. He received tenure and was promoted to associate professor in 1999. During a sabbatical leave in 2000, he worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Professor Robert Langer's laboratory. Dr Amiji's research focuses on polymeric technologies for delivery of drugs and genes to specific target sites in the body, nanotechnology for medical diagnosis and therapy, and development of biocompatible materials. He also holds or has applied for several US patents on polymeric technologies. He provides intellectual consulting services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. Dr Amiji's research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, biotechnology and medical device companies, and private foundations. He has received a number of awards, including the citation in Who's Who in Science and Engineering (1996) and the third prize of the Eurand Award for Outstanding Research in Oral Drug Delivery (2003).
