C. Todd Reichart

Edward C. “Ted” Taylor
Edward C. “Ted” Taylor
Denise Applewhite/Office of Communications

Funding just became easier for doctoral students in the chemistry department, thanks to professor emeritus Edward C. “Ted” Taylor. With royalties from a top-selling cancer drug, Alimta, he invented for Eli Lilly & Co., Taylor has endowed fellowships for third-year chemistry Ph.D. students — usually about 30 students per year.

“That’s when they ought to be completely free of other concerns so they can devote themselves totally to their research,” says the 92-year-old Taylor. His work already has made a crucial difference to scientists at Princeton: The University’s Alimta royalties paid for the department’s quarter-billion-dollar new home, Frick Chemistry Laboratory, which opened in 2010.