Maurice Wilkins

Physicist, Molecular Biologist (1916-2004)

Maurice Wilkins was already working at King’s College before Rosalind Franklin had arrived. Born in New Zealand, Wilkins was a Cambridge-educated physicist, and worked on the improvement of cathode-ray tube screens for use in radar during World War II for a new PhD. He    was afterwards sent to the United States to work on the Manhattan Project. Wilkins did not enjoy the thought of creating the atomic bomb, and ​​​​​​instead decided to work with his Cambridge mentor John T.   Randall in biophysics. They started at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and then moved over to King’s College London. Wilkins began implementation of the study of DNA by X-ray crystallographic techniques, the idea of which he created, before Franklin was appointed by Randall.

Maurice Wilkins, 1962, Encyclopedia Britannica