Biology
Maurice Wilkins
Biophysicist, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1962 for the structure of DNA
Born 1916 · Died 2004
Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain
Maurice Wilkins began the X-ray work on DNA at King's College London and shared the 1962 Nobel Prize with Watson and Crick. He had worked on the Manhattan Project and turned to biology afterwards out of disillusionment with nuclear physics.
Key achievements
- Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1962, for the structure of DNA
- Began the X-ray diffraction work on DNA at King's
- Worked on the Manhattan Project, then abandoned physics
Universities
London
Led the biophysics unit where the X-ray diffraction work on DNA was carried out from 1946.
Cambridge, England
Read physics at St John's College, graduating in 1938.
Facts
- It was Wilkins who showed Photo 51 to James Watson, without Rosalind Franklin's knowledge.
- He worked on uranium isotope separation for the atomic bomb and said the result made him abandon physics.
- The King's College building housing its biosciences is named the Franklin-Wilkins Building after both of them.
Photographs
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.