Francis Crick

Molecular Biophysicist, Geneticist, Neuroscientist (1916-2004)

When James Watson arrived at the Cavendish Laboratory, Max Perutz was studying hemoglobin and John Kendrew was investigating myoglobin, both under the leadership of William Lawrence Bragg.  Francis Crick, who earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from University College London, was working under Perutz. Crick had also helped develop radar and magnetic mines during World War II. Crick was assigned to write a dissertation on the X-ray crystallography of hemoglobin before Watson arrived, wanting to gain a colleague for DNA research. Watson and Crick decided to put several models of DNA together, and tried to use all of the evidence that they could gather. The two got some of Franklin’s X-ray photographs, without her permission, from Wilkins. Those pictures were critical to their solution, and the four scientists announced the structure of DNA.

Francis Crick, The Guardian