Jorge Heller
1927–2009

CRS sadly announces the passing of Jorge Heller on June 8, 2009.

Jorge Heller was born in Czechoslovakia in 1927 and moved with his family to Argentina in 1939. After completing high school in Buenos Aires, Jorge moved to the United States in 1948.

Jorge had a long and prestigious career in applications of polymer chemistry for controlled release. He was a leader in our field for many decades and continued in his retirement to work in controlled drug delivery. From the inception of CRS, he was a very active member of the Society and served as president from 1989 to 1990. He was also the founder and editor of the Journal of Controlled Release, and to this day, the Journal of Controlled Release Award is given in Jorge Heller’s name.

Jorge received his B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley and his Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from the University of Washington in Seattle. In his position at Union Carbide, he was introduced for the first time to polymer chemistry. After three years, he accepted a position with Stanford University as part of the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, CA, and was put in charge of the newly formed polymer program. Dr. Heller spent many years at SRI and became the director of the Controlled Release and Biomedical Polymers Department. In the late 1960s, he joined ALZA as director of physical sciences and was charged with developing a bioerodible drug delivery system, his first foray into controlled drug delivery. This task was achieved by the development of poly(ortho esters). In 1974, Dr. Heller left ALZA and rejoined SRI, where he continued working with poly(ortho esters). In 1994, he left SRI to join AP Pharma as a principal scientist. For almost 30 years, Dr. Heller taught the Advances in Controlled Drug Delivery course at MIT, where he passed on his extensive knowledge to more than 4,000 researchers and engineers from industry.

Dr. Heller held adjunct appointments at many universities. His contributions have been recognized with many awards, including receiving the Society for Biomaterials’ Clemson Award for applied biomaterials research (1980), being elected as a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (1993) and of the Society for Biomaterials (1994), receiving the CRS Distinguished Service Award (1995), and, most recently, receiving the CRS Founders’ Award (2006). Dr. Heller received the SRI Fellowship, with paid sabbaticals at the University of Keele with Ruth Duncan, University of Geneva with Robert Gurny, and University of Utah with Sung Wan Kim. The 7th International Symposium on Recent Advances in Drug Delivery Research was held in Dr. Heller’s honor in 1995.

Taking chances was something Jorge Heller was known for, and his colleagues admired him for being a gambler. The big change that impacted his life was taking the position at ALZA, as the director of physical sciences. Controlled drug delivery was a new concept at the time, and Dr. Heller knew joining this new company was full of risks. His tenure at ALZA brought him into the world of controlled drug delivery and the development of poly(ortho esters). Jorge Heller became one of the most sought-after leaders in controlled release and delivery.

When Dr. Heller was recently asked, “What personal attributes allowed you to be so successful throughout your career?”

He replied, “There are no shortcuts, and success can only come after hard work, a total dedication to one’s chosen field, and a true love of science. It is also important to never give up. All problems have a solution, and with sufficient effort, they can be solved.”

Dr. Heller was an eminent scientist and will be remembered for his never-ending enthusiasm for research, new areas of science, and interest in the welfare and development of young scientists. Since the start of the CRS, he only missed one annual meeting and exposition due to illness and had just informed us that unfortunately due to his health he would not be able to join us in Copenhagen.

Dr. Heller is survived by his wife, Gloria Heller, as well as a son in California, a son in Washington, numerous grandchildren, a brother in Argentina, and many cousins, nephews, and nieces.

Dr. Nicholas Peppas, long-time friend and colleague of Jorge Heller, says,

Jorge Heller was a great contributor to the fields of controlled drug delivery and polymer science. His pioneering work on biodegradable systems catalyzed our growth of this field. He was an international ambassador for drug delivery. His bold vision to start JCR in 1984 allowed the field of controlled release to mature and the Controlled Release Society to become truly international. By 1989, when he took over as CRS president, JCR had become the ‘most desirable journal for publication of controlled release research,’ while CRS had done two international meetings already (Geneva, Basel) and was on the way to international leadership. Without this visionary effort in the early 1980s, this would have been impossible.

But more than anything else, Jorge Heller remained a simple man, always smiling, always supporting the young generation of scientists…. He loved flying all over the country (he was a great pilot), searching all music stores for the latest editions of old performances (Vladimir Horowitz and Jascha Heifetz were his favorites), and he would always enjoy a great scotch, before the doctors curtailed such activities.

I am thinking that the late Joe Robinson (who was teaching the MIT course with him) would always tease him and call him ‘the grandpa of the field.’ I am sure that today Jorge and Joe, father and son, are having a nice scotch up there and enjoying the fruits of their great scientific leadership and their great contributions for the betterment of our patients’ quality of life.

Jorge Heller will be missed. His contributions will keep him with us. Thank you, Jorge!