Wife of contact lens inventor dies at 106

Linda Wichterlová, the wife of chemist Otto Wichterle, who is famous for his invention of modern soft contact lenses, has died at the age of 106. Her grandson Martin Wichterle told the Czech News Agency that she passed away on Friday. She will be buried in her native Prostějov in the Olomouc Region.

Wichterlová started studying medicine before the Second World War but wasn't able to complete her studies due to the Nazi closure of Czechoslovak universities in 1939. After the war she studied dentistry and worked at the Dental Research Institute in Prague. Later she also worked with her husband on his contact lens research.

Both husband and wife signed "The Two Thousand Words" manifesto in 1968 during the Prague Spring and were later persecuted for it by the communist regime.