Prof. Ernst Wagner is Chair of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the Department of Pharmacy and the Center for Nanoscience at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich, Germany, a position he has held since 2001. He earned his PhD in Chemistry from TU Vienna in 1985, followed by postdoctoral research at ETH Zurich (1985–1987), and subsequently served as Group Leader at the Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) and the Vienna Biocenter (1987–1995). From 1992 to 2001, he was Director of Cancer Vaccines at Boehringer Ingelheim, where he led the world’s first polymer-based gene therapy clinical trial in 1994.

Prof. Wagner is internationally recognised for his pioneering work in gene delivery systems, nanomedicine, and cancer immunotherapy, with a strong focus on non-viral vectors and nucleic acid-based therapeutics. His research combines pharmaceutical biotechnology with innovative translational approaches.

He is an Academician of the European Academy of Sciences, Member of the College of Fellows of the Controlled Release Society (CRS), Board Member of the German Society for Gene Therapy, and Member of the Nonviral Therapeutic Delivery Committee of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT).

Prof. Wagner has authored over 500 peer-reviewed publications, with more than 52,000 citations and an H-index of 115 (Google Scholar), placing him among the most cited researchers in the field.

Prof. Ernst Wagner has served as Officer of the Medicine and Life Sciences Division across two mandates: March 2018 – February 2021, extended until April 2024 due to the COVID-19 pandemic; May 2025 – April 2028 (current and second consecutive term, in accordance with the EurASc Bylaws).