Question: Facts: - death place: blackheath , london , united kingdom - prizes: nobel prize in physiology or medicine -lrb- 1962 -rrb- - known for: x-ray diffraction , dna - caption: maurice wilkins - fields: physics , molecular biology - death date: 5 october 2004 - work institution: the university of st andrews king 's college , london university of birmingham university of california , berkeley - birth date: 15 december 1916 - name: maurice wilkins - image size: 220px - image: maurice h f wilkins.jpg - birth place: pongaroa , wairarapa , new zealand - alma mater: st. birmingham john 's college , cambridge , university of Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of maurice wilkins .
Answer:
maurice hugh frederick wilkins cbe frs -lrb- 15 december 1916 -- 5 october 2004 -rrb- was a new zealand-born english physicist and molecular biologist , and nobel laureate whose research contributed to the scientific understanding of phosphorescence , isotope separation , optical microscopy and x-ray diffraction , and to the development of radar .he is best known for his work at king 's college , london on the structure of dna which falls into three distinct phases .the first was in 1948 -- 50 where his initial studies produced the first clear x-ray images of dna which he presented at a conference in naples in 1951 attended by james watson .during the second phase of work -lrb- 1951 -- 52 -rrb- he produced clear '' b form '' '' x '' shaped images from squid sperm which he sent to james watson and francis crick causing watson to write '' wilkins ... has obtained extremely excellent x-ray diffraction photographs '' dna .throughout this period wilkins was consistent in his belief that dna was helical even when rosalind franklin expressed strong views to the contrary .in 1953 franklin instructed raymond gosling to give wilkins , without condition , a high quality image of '' b '' form dna which she had unexpectedly produced months earlier but had '' put it aside '' to concentrate on other work .wilkins , having checked that he was free to personally use the photograph to confirm his earlier results , showed it to watson without the consent of rosalind franklin .this image , along with the knowledge that linus pauling had published an incorrect structure of dna , '' mobilised '' watson to restart model building efforts with crick .important contributions and data from wilkins , franklin -lrb- obtained via max perutz -rrb- and colleagues in cambridge enabled watson and crick to propose a double-helix model for dna .the third and longest phase of wilkins ' work on dna took place from 1953 onwards .here wilkins led a major project at king 's college , london , to test , verify and make significant...