Rosalind Franklin
Her Photo 51 was shown to competitors without her knowledge; the Nobel came after her death — to others.
- Born
- 1920 · London, England
- Roots
- Anglo-Jewish; a prominent London banking family
- Family
- Affluent
- Merchant-banker father; an affluent, civic-minded household.
- Education
- Newnham College, Cambridge (chemistry)
- Started with
- A Paris lab
- Learned X-ray crystallography at a French state laboratory — the technique behind Photo 51.
- Affiliations & societies
- None documented.
- Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.
The pathway
- 1938 · age 18Cambridge
Chemistry at Newnham; wartime doctoral work on the structure of coal.
- 1947 · age 26Paris
Masters X-ray diffraction at the Laboratoire Central; by her account, her happiest working years.
- 1951 · age 30King's College London
Assigned to DNA; an ambiguous role definition sours relations with Maurice Wilkins from the start.
- 1952 · age 31Photo 51
With Raymond Gosling — the clearest X-ray image of DNA's B form yet taken.
- 1953 · age 32Shown without her knowledge
Wilkins shows the photo to James Watson; her unpublished data also reaches Crick. The double-helix paper follows within months, hers printed third in support.
- 1953 · age 33Birkbeck
Leaves for virus-structure work that becomes field-defining in its own right.
- 1958 · age 37Dies of ovarian cancer
The 1962 Nobel goes to Watson, Crick, and Wilkins; the prize is not awarded posthumously.
Sources
Compiled from these references and contemporaneous press reporting. Figures are approximate; verify before relying on them.