Dr. J. William Langston is the Chief Scientific Officer and Founder of the Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, California. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Medicine, he served as a faculty member at Stanford University and Chairman of Neurology at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California before founding the Parkinson's Institute. He is internationally recognized for the discovery of the link between a chemical known as MPTP and parkinsonism, which has provided a new tool to study Parkinson's disease and which also stimulated great interest in the possibility that environmental factors may play a role in causing the disease. His current research interests include the study of mechanisms of neuronal degeneration, defining the exact nature of PD and its etiology, and finding ways to accelerate drug discovery and development. To date, Dr. Langston has published 350 papers on PD and related disorders and has received many awards for his work, the most recent of which was the Robert J. Pritzker Prized for Leadership in Parkinson’s Research.  Dr. Langston serves on numerous editorial and advisory boards including the The Michael J. Fox Foundation.