Inventor nabs $500,000 MIT prize

Local chemist's success in manipulating plastics so they heal and protect gets heady recognition

The allure of creating things hasn't let go of Joseph DeSimone since he concocted a vial of purple crystals in high school.

A co-founder of Liquidia Technologies and a chemist who holds posts at two Triangle universities, DeSimone is caught up in experimenting as national attention for his work and his collection of accolades continue to grow.

Wednesday, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology named DeSimone, 44, the winner of this year's Lemelson Prize. Known as the "Oscar for inventors," the award pays $500,000 cash.

DeSimone knew he was in the running for the award, but he said he considered himself "a huge long shot." No other scientist in the Triangle, a U.S. hub for innovation, has won a Lemelson in the award's 14-year history.

After interviews with science writers and New England television stations Wednesday, DeSimone planned to throw a party for 45 family members, students and friends at Anthony's Pier 4, a seafood restaurant overlooking Boston Harbor. "It's surreal, all the attention," he said by phone.

DeSimone won the award because of his diverse contributions in the field of polymers, man-made materials better known as plastics. He has coaxed these materials to dissolve, fill microscopically small molds and protect the environment.

"He's an outstanding guy, very innovative, very bright, a go-getter," said Robert Langer, a MIT chemistry professor and Lemelson Prize winner who nominated DeSimone for the award.

In the past five years, most of DeSimone's work has focused on medical devices. That includes a drug-laced stent that keeps blocked arteries open and then dissolves to prevent scarring, and bacteria-shaped vessels that can slip inside tumor cells to unload poisonous cargo.

DeSimone makes what he does look easy. An imposing figure at 6-foot-3-inches tall, he juggles tasks with a right-handed draw of his BlackBerry. His business card lists academic appointments at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he directs a team of 35 students and associates, and N.C. State University, where he teaches chemical engineering.

Off campus, he oversees product development as chief scientific officer at Liquidia Technologies, a Durham company that he co-founded.

The best ideas, he said, come to him at the beach; he and his family spend most weekends at a second home at Holden Beach, south of Wilmington.

But DeSimone's accomplishments weren't a breeze. They are the result of hard work, dedication and a pinch of sibling rivalry.

Middle-kid motivation

The middle child of Philip and Arlene DeSimone displayed a tendency for intensity early on.

Long after his older brother and younger sister had tired of the Erector Set that had landed under the Christmas Tree, Joe, who was 8 or 9 at the time, remained engaged, his father said. "He wouldn't get tired of building until it was done," Philip DeSimone said.

Such diligence was encouraged. Arlene DeSimone went back to work as an accountant when her youngest child entered first grade. Philip DeSimone, who immigrated from Italy as a child, worked two jobs as a men's tailor for 35 years so his family could afford a nice home in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Joseph DeSimone was 15 when he got his first job, working part time in a pizza bakery close to his Collegeville, Pa., home and the town's only fire station, where he was a member of the volunteer fire department.

"When the sirens came on, he would drop everything, pizza or not," Philip DeSimone said with a laugh.

During his junior and senior years in high school and the four years he pursued a chemistry degree at Ursinus College, a liberal arts school in Collegeville, Joseph DeSimone worked 25 hours a week at the local ACME supermarket. He stocked shelves at night, rang up groceries at the cash register and managed the dairy aisle.