Nobel Prize winner honored with dedicated campus bike rack
Published 10:00 am Thursday, October 18, 2018
- FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2018, file photo, George Smith, professor emeritus at the University of Missouri, speaks to a crowd in Columbia, Mo., about winning the Nobel Prize for chemistry. The university is honoring its Nobel Prize-winning scientist with an unusual accolade: a dedicated bicycle rack slot. It will be a standard bike rack, the same as those used by other bicyclists on campus. But the university plans to post a sign letting everyone know that this particular space belongs to a Nobel laureate. (Don Shrubshell/Columbia Daily Tribune via AP, File)
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri is honoring its Nobel Prize-winning scientist with an unusual accolade: a dedicated spot in a bicycle rack.
George Smith learned this month that he’ll share this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry with two other scientists.
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Other schools have recognized their Nobel laureates with a dedicated parking space. But the 77-year-old Smith is, by his own assessment, “not a good driver.”
Smith tells The Kansas City Star he’s no “bike enthusiast” but that he lives less than a mile from the Columbia campus and bikes to work every day.
His spot will be in a standard bike rack, the same as those used by other bicyclists on campus. But the university plans to post a sign letting everyone know one particular space belongs to a Nobel laureate.