Maurice Wilkins, 88; DNA Pioneer Shared Nobel with Watson and Crick

Maurice Wilkins, a Nobel Prizewinning pioneer of DNA research, died Tuesday at a London hospital. He was 88.Wilkins was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1962 along with the two scientists credited for describing the structure of DNA, Francis Crick and James Watson.Announcing his death, principals at King’s College in London, where Wilkins produced his groundbreaking X-ray work that led to Mr.Watson’s and Crick’s discovery, described the professor as “a towering figure, one of the greatest scientists of the 20th Century and a man of immense humanity.”Mr. Watson, the only scientist involved in the DNA project who is still living, said Wednesday that Wilkins was “a very intelligent scientist with a very deep personal concern that science be used to benefit society.”Colleagues said Wilkins, who also worked on the Manhattan Project, was proud of his membership in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.Wilkins and his colleagues spent seven years proving that the hypothetical DNA model that Mr. Watson and Crick constructed was correct.But it was his initial work on X-ray crystallography that was so critical to the discovery. The technique uses scattered X-rays to produce images of the structure of molecules.Wilkins, together with Rosalind Franklin, whom he recruited, found that the long chains of DNA were arranged in the form of a double helix.“Watson and Crick then used this data to show that the organic bases of DNA were paired in a specific manner in the intertwined helices,” said Lord May of Oxford, president of the Royal Society, Britain’s academy of scientists.“While Watson and Crick have rightly been recognized across the world for their contribution, the roles of Wilkins and Franklin, which were crucial, have not always been fully acknowledged outside the scientific community.”Dr. Stephen Minger, a lecturer in biomedical sciences at King’s College, where Wilkins remained on staff until his death, agreed that the scientist probably didn’t get the credit he deserved for discoveries that have revolutionized science.“He is one of the pioneers of molecular biology, and we wouldn’t be anywhere close to where we are now without him,” Minger said.Born in 1916 in Pongaroa, New Zealand, Wilkins was the son of a doctor. He was brought to England at the age of 6 and received his physics degree at Cambridge University in 1938. He completed his Ph.D thesis on the theory of phosphorescence.During World War II, he worked on the separation of uranium isotopes and then continued this work in Berkeley, Calif., where he joined the Manhattan Project.His autobiography, “The Third Man Of The Double Helix,” was published last year.

Maurice Wilkins, 88; DNA Pioneer Shared Nobel with Watson and Crick

Maurice Wilkins, 88; DNA Pioneer Shared Nobel with Watson and Crick

More from the New York Sun

Wynton Marsalis’s Homecoming Farewell

Trump, at Joint Press Conference with Mamdani, Expresses Optimism That Mayor Will Be a ‘Great One’

A Raid on the Presidency

In the Next 43 Days, Nobody Should Underestimate Trump and the GOP

Lula Touts Leftist Record With Mamdani as Polls Show Presidential Election a Toss-Up in Brazil

DOJ, USDA Join Forces at Animal Cruelty Strike Force Roundtable to Boost Federal Prosecutions

Leader of The Second Intifada or Hamas Could Win if Palestinian Elections Go Ahead

Iowa Republicans Begin Sounding Alarm on Iran War as a Senate Race and Two House Seats Fall Into Toss-Up Territory

More from the New York Sun

Wynton Marsalis’s Homecoming Farewell

Trump, at Joint Press Conference with Mamdani, Expresses Optimism That Mayor Will Be a ‘Great One’

A Raid on the Presidency

In the Next 43 Days, Nobody Should Underestimate Trump and the GOP

Lula Touts Leftist Record With Mamdani as Polls Show Presidential Election a Toss-Up in Brazil

DOJ, USDA Join Forces at Animal Cruelty Strike Force Roundtable to Boost Federal Prosecutions

Leader of The Second Intifada or Hamas Could Win if Palestinian Elections Go Ahead

Iowa Republicans Begin Sounding Alarm on Iran War as a Senate Race and Two House Seats Fall Into Toss-Up Territory