Franklin, Rosalind

[person]

English biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer born in London (1920-1958). Franklin discovered that DNA crystallizes into two forms, and, working with Maurice Wilkins, used X-ray crystallography to determine the molecular structure of one of these forms. Her work was instrumental in allowing James Watson and Francis Crick to determine the complete structure of DNA. Her results were shared with them without her knowledge, and her contributions were not acknowledged. When Watson, Crick, and Wilkins won a Nobel Prize for their work on the structure of DNA in 1962, Franklin was again overlooked because the Nobel Prize cannot be awarded posthumously.