Rosalind Franklin
British chemist, biophysicist, and X-ray crystallographer (1920–1958)
AI overview
Rosalind Franklin was a British scientist who used X-ray crystallography—a technique to study the structure of materials at the molecular level—to make important discoveries in chemistry and biology during the mid-20th century. Her work matters because her research contributed to our understanding of molecular structures, though much of her contributions went unrecognized during her lifetime.
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Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1920-07-25
- Died
- 1958-04-16
- Works
- 12
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Article
Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 1920 – 16 April 1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer. Her work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, Franklin's contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognised during her life, for which Franklin has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology". James Watson believed that, had she not died, ideally, Franklin would have been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Franklin graduated in 1941 with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge, and then enrolled for a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, the 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Disappointed by Norrish's lack of enthusiasm, she took up a research position under the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The research on coal helped Franklin earn a PhD from Cambridge in 1945. Moving to Paris in 1947 as a chercheur (postdoctoral researcher) under Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État, she became an accomplished X-ray crystallographer. After joining King's College London in 1951 as a research associate, Franklin discovered some key properties of DNA, which eventually facilitated the correct description of the double helix structure of DNA. Owing to disagreement with her director, John Randall, and her colleague Maurice Wilkins, Franklin moved to Birkbeck College in 1953.
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1920 births1958 deaths20th-century British chemists20th-century British Jews20th-century British women biologists20th-century English biologists20th-century English chemists20th-century English women scientistsAcademics of Birkbeck, University of LondonAcademics of King's College LondonAlumni of Newnham College, CambridgeBritish biophysicists