death_date nationality fields birth_date alma_mater death_place image_size resting_place_coordinates image name death_cause resting_place birth_place work_institutions known_for thesis_year doctoral_student article_title birth_name thesis_title
16 april 1958 british physical chemistry x-ray crystallography 25 july 1920 newnham college , cambridge chelsea , london , england 225px 51.5447 -0.2399 type : landmark inline , title rosalind franklin.jpg rosalind elsie franklin ovarian cancer willesden united synagogue cemetery notting hill , london , england british chimiques de l'État king 's college , london birkbeck college coal , london utilisation research association laboratoire central des services structure structure of viruses of dna fine structure of coal and graphite 1945 raymond gosling rosalind franklin
 rosalind elsie franklin the reference to coal physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special
rosalind franklin

rosalind elsie franklin -lrb- 25 july 192016 april 1958 -rrb- was an english chemist and x-ray crystallographer who made contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of dna -lrb- deoxyribonucleic acid -rrb- , rna -lrb- ribonucleic acid -rrb- , viruses , coal , and graphite .
although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime , her dna work posthumously achieved profound impact as dna plays a central role in biology , as it carries the genetic information that is passed from parents to their offspring .
born to a prominent british jewish family , franklin was educated at a private day school at norland place in west london , lindores school for young ladies in sussex , and st paul 's girls ' school .
she excelled in all major subjects and sports .
she passed her matriculation at age eighteen , and won the school leaving exhibition of # 30 a year for three years .
her father asked her to donate the money she earned to refugee students during world war ii .
then she studied the natural sciences tripos at newnham college , cambridge , from where she graduated in 1941 .
earning a research fellowship , she joined the university of cambridge physical chemistry laboratory under ronald george wreyford norrish , who disappointed her for his lack of enthusiasm .
fortunately , the british coal utilisation research association -lrb- bcura -rrb- offered her a research position in 1942 , and started her work on coals .
this helped her earn a phd in 1945 .
she went to paris in 1947 as a `` chercheur '' -lrb- post-doctoral researcher -rrb- under jacques mering at the laboratoire central des services chimiques de l'etat , where she became an accomplished x-ray crystallographer .
she became a research associate at king 's college london , in 1951 , but was compelled to move to birkbeck college only after two years , owing to disagreeable clashes with her director john randall and more so with her colleague maurice wilkins .
at birkbeck , chair of physics department j. d. bernal offered her a separate research team .
she died in 1958 at the age of 37 of ovarian cancer .
franklin is best known for her work on the x-ray diffraction images of dna while at king 's college , london , which led to the discovery of the dna double helix .
franklin 's x-ray diffraction images , which implied a helical structure for dna and enabled inferences concerning certain key details thereof , were shown to watson by wilkins .
according to francis crick , her data and research were key in determining the structure and formulating crick and james watson 's 1953 model regarding the structure of dna .
watson confirmed this opinion in his own statement at the opening of the king 's college london franklin -- wilkins building in 2000 .
her work was published third , in the series of three dna `` nature '' articles , led by the paper of watson and crick .
watson , crick and wilkins shared the nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 1962 .
watson suggested that franklin would have ideally been awarded a nobel prize in chemistry , along with wilkins .
after finishing her portion of the work on dna , with her own research team at birkbeck college , franklin led pioneering work on the molecular structures of viruses , including tobacco mosaic virus and the polio virus .
continuing her research , her team member , and later her beneficiary aaron klug went on to win the nobel prize in chemistry in 1982 .
