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Dr. Jorge Heller Dr. Jorge Heller died at home on June 9, 2009 from complications due to multiple myeloma. He was born in Liberec, Czechoslovakia in 1927. Dr. Heller received a B.S. degree in chemistry in 1952 from the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry in 1957 from the University of Washington in Seattle. After three years at Union Carbide in New Jersey, Dr. Heller joined Stanford Research Institute in 1959 as Director of Polymer Chemistry. In 1970 he left the Institute to join the Alza Corporation as Director of Physical Sciences where he began his research in controlled drug delivery. In 1974 he rejoined Stanford Research Institute now known as SRI International, where he continued this activity as Director of the Controlled Release and Biomedical Polymers Department. Dr. Heller left SRI International in 1994 and joined Advanced Polymer Systems where he served as Principal Scientist. Advanced Polymer Systems became AP Pharma, a specialty pharmaceutical company, focused on the development of innovative medical treatments. Dr. Heller held appointments of Adjunct Professor of Pharmacy at the University of California at San Francisco, Adjunct Professor of Pharmaceutics and Materials Science at the University of Utah and lecturer at the Kwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea. For 25 years he was a lecturer at the yearly course on Advances in Controlled Release at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was visiting professor at several universities. He is the author of about 210 publications and 50 patents. He retired to Ashland, Ore., in 2004, still retaining consulting relationships with various companies. He particularly enjoyed the skiing and cycling opportunities around the Ashland area. Survivors include his wife, Gloria; sons, Steven Heller and David Heller; stepchildren, Mark Myers and Nathalie Pearson; and grandchildren, Catie Heller, Henry Heller and Jessica Pearson. Services are private. Memorials in his name may be given to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Stanford, Calif., or to the Nature Conservancy of Oregon. Arrangements by Litwiller-Simonsen Funeral Home, Ashland, Ore.