Portrait of Nicholas A. Peppas

Birthday profile

Nicholas A. Peppas

Nicholas A. Peppas, Greek chemist and biologist

Born
August 25, 1948
Age in 2026
78
Zodiac sign
Virgo
Birth year
1948

About Nicholas A. Peppas

Nicholas (Nikolaos) A. Peppas (Greek: Νικόλαος Α. Πέππας; born 25 August 1948, in Athens, Greece) 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. == Education and work == Peppas was educated in chemical engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (D. Eng., 1971) and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sc.D., 1973) under the direction of bioengineering pioneer Edward W. Merrill. Subsequently, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Arteriosclerosis Center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under world biomedical leaders Clark K. Colton, Kenneth A. Smith and Robert S. Lees. He is the Cockrell Family Regents Chair #6 in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He has been at the University of Texas at Austin since December 2002 and is serving as the director of the Institute of Biomaterials, Drug Delivery, and Regenerative Medicine, and its Laboratory of Biomaterials, Drug Delivery and Bionanotechnology with appointments in the department of chemical engineering, the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin. Before 2002, he was the Showalter Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and professor of chemical engineering at Purdue University. Peppas is a researcher and inventor in the field of drug delivery and controlled release. He is also a leader in biomaterials, bionanotechnology, nano materials and bionanotechnology, and the fields of feedback controlled biomedical devices and molecular recognition.His contributions have been translated into more than twenty medical products. Peppas is a member of the US National Academy of Medicine, the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the Académie Nationale of France, the Academy of Athens, the Real Academia Nacional de Farmacia of Spain and the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Sciences of Texas (TAMEST). Very few chemical engineers are members of both NAE and IOM (including Frances Arnold, Mark Davis, David Mooney of Harvard, and David A. Tirrell of the California Institute of Technology, Rakesh Jain of Harvard, Robert Langer of MIT, and his former students Antonios Mikos Archived 2017-05-02 at the Wayback Machine of Rice University and Kristi Anseth of the University of Colorado).

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Nicholas A. Peppas timeline

  1. Peppas was the first to develop novel toxic-free poly(vinyl alcohol) gels by the freezing-thawing technique in 1975.
  2. In 1979 his group pioneered the use of hydrogels in drug delivery applications, including epidermal bioadhesive systems and systems for the release of theophylline, proxyphylline, diltiazem, and oxprenolol.
  3. Using intelligent polymers as early as 1980, Peppas and his group were the first to use such pH-sensitive and temperature-sensitive systems for modulated release of streptokinase and other fibrinolytic enzymes.

The world when Nicholas A. Peppas was born

Nicholas A. Peppas was born in 1948. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1948

  • #1 song"Twelfth Street Rag" – Pee Wee Hunt
  • Top movieHamlet
  • Top TV showTexaco Star Theater (Milton Berle)
  • Best-selling bookThe Naked and the Dead – Norman Mailer

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentCleveland Indians win the World Series
  • Top headlineState of Israel declared
  • Technology milestoneLong-playing vinyl record (LP) introduced
  • Defining fadTelevision sets in homes
  • Notable inventionVelcro
  • World population2.50 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHarry S. Truman
  • Sports championCleveland Indians (World Series)
  • Also wonBaltimore Bullets (BAA)
  • U.S. population146.6M

1948 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Nicholas A. Peppas's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19482026
Gas$0.26$3.45/gal
Average home$8,300$435,000
Average income$5,000$67,500
Minimum wage$0.40$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.40$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population146.6M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.