ROSALIND FRANKLIN
Rosalind Franklin was a chemist and X-Ray Crystallographer who made a crucial contribution to our current understanding of the structure of DNA. However, she remains in the "shadows of science history" "shadows of science history" with her contribution to discovering the double helix structure of DNA being less known.
Franklin was born 25 July 1920 and studied physics and chemistry at Cambridge University. Following this, she completed a PhD investigating the porosity of coal. In 1946 she moved to Paris, where she acquired her expertise in X-ray crystallography. With her passion for this field, she return to the UK, to accept a job in crystallography at King's College London.
Amongst her peers, she was considered a vivacious, talented and driven scientist. However, she was also stubborn and this meant other scientists often found it difficult to work with her. Consequently, when working on the structure of DNA with Maurice Wilkins, the working environment was difficult and awkward, with both often deciding to work in isolation. With this, Wilkins sought company whilst working a laboratory at Cambridge, which was where his colleague Francis Cricke was collaborating with James Watson to construct a physical DNA model.
Francis and Crick saw some of Franklin's unpublished data, including an X-ray diffraction photograh which inspired the Nobel Prize -winning model by Watson and Crick. Franklin was not formally acknowledged with a Nobel Prize, nor during her life, as she sadly passed from Ovarian Cancer aged only 37.
However, more recently, her work has gained increasing attention, and her contribution to one of the most important biological discoveries
finally receives deserved recognition. Her name however, does not always show in educational textbooks, meaning it is our responsibility
to show the contribution of women like Rosalind Franklin to the younger generation. Her drive and ambition lives on through
The Rosalind Franklin Institute
a charity that aims to support collaborative life-sciences and biotechnology projects. Find out more about the charity at:
Or choose to donate to the charity below.
Coded by Ciara Gibbs