Rosalind Franklin

1920 – 1958

Rosalind Elsie Franklin was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose images of DNA—particularly the now-famous "Photograph 51" produced in her King's College London laboratory in 1952—provided the critical experimental evidence that allowed James Watson and Francis Crick to deduce the double-helix structure of DNA. Her contributions were largely uncredited during her lifetime, and she died of ovarian cancer at age 37 in 1958, four years before Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize for the discovery. She also produced foundational work on the molecular structure of RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM