Reminder: Friends Speaker Series: A Lecture About Kirkwood’s Nobel Laureate William Standish Knowles

November 4^th @ 10am at Mudd’s Grove.  Speaker: Lesley McIntire (a Kirkwood resident) will share about her father’s experience.  “Kirkwood’s Nobel Laureate: William Standish Knowles.”

Knowles was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001 for improving ways to manufacture drugs, including L-dopa for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.  Monsanto then began large-scale production of the drug, which is still a mainstay in treating Parkinson’s, especially in the disease’s early stages. Elizabeth Knowles said her father did not keep any of the Nobel Prize money — more than $200,000. He gave some to two Monsanto colleagues who had collaborated on his L-dopa research and donated the rest to Harvard and Columbia.