Maurice Wilkins Autograph

Profession:
(1916 - 2004) British physicist and molecular biologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1962) - DNA

Year of Birth: 1916

Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins was born on 15 December 1916 in Pongaroa, New Zealand. He was the youngest son of a doctor and a teacher. He studied at the University of Auckland and earned a degree in physics in 1938. He then went on to pursue a doctorate in physics at King's College London in 1939.

During World War II, Wilkins worked at the British Admiralty on the use of radar. In 1945, he returned to King's College and worked with Professor John Randall on the structure of DNA. Wilkins and Randall's work laid the foundation for the discovery of DNA's double helix structure by James Watson and Francis Crick. Wilkins's contributions were crucial to this discovery and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in 1962.

Wilkins' research was wide-ranging and he made numerous contributions to the fields of biophysics, biochemistry, and X-ray crystallography. He was particularly interested in the structure and functions of chromatin, the material in which DNA is packaged in cells. Wilkins also worked on the development of an X-ray diffraction camera, which was able to take the first X-ray image of a living cell. This work helped to revolutionize the field of cell biology.

Wilkins was an enthusiastic teacher, and he was a popular lecturer at King's College. He was also a passionate advocate of science education, and he established the Science Education Council in 1968. This organization was dedicated to improving science education in the United Kingdom. Wilkins was also a founding member of the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science, which was established in 1970.

Wilkins was awarded numerous honors for his work, including the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 1959 and the Order of Merit in 1968. He was also elected a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States in 1971. Wilkins died in 2004 at the age of 87. He was survived by his wife, two sons, and two daughters.

Maurice Wilkins' contributions to the field of molecular biology were immense and had a lasting impact on science. His work helped to revolutionize our understanding of the structure and functions of DNA, and his passion for science education helped to inspire a generation of young scientists. He will always be remembered as one of the most influential scientists of the twentieth century.