Rosalind Franklin

FRANKLIN, Rosalind (Elsie), English biophysicist, 1920-1958. A Cambridge PhD in 1945. Her x-ray diffraction studies of DNA crystals helped to define their helical type of structure. It was her vital data that enabled CRICK and WATSON to deduce the chemical structure of DNA, for which they later won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. It was unfortunate that she died at age 37, just 4 years before CRICK and WATSON were awarded the Nobel for their work, or she may well have shared it with them (Nobel Prizes cannot be awarded posthumously!). Following the DNA work, Rosalind had studied the structure of carbon.

Biophysicist - DNA Pioneer