Maurice Wilkins
Biophysicist who pioneered X-ray diffraction studies of DNA.
Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins was a biophysicist born in New Zealand who later became a British citizen and won a Nobel Prize. His work stretched across physics and biophysics, covering topics like phosphorescence, separating isotopes, optical microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. He is best known for starting and guiding the early X-ray diffraction work on DNA at King’s College London, and for playing a key part in making the discovery of DNA’s double helix possible.
Wilkins began looking into nucleic acids in 1948. By 1950, he and his group had created some of the earliest high-quality X-ray diffraction images of DNA fibers. He showed this work at a conference in Naples in 1951, which strongly influenced James Watson and led Watson to pursue DNA structure research with Francis Crick.
In 1951, Rosalind Franklin came to King’s College and was put on the same DNA project, but without a clear division of leadership. Tensions arose because of overlapping duties and a lack of administrative clarity. During this time, Franklin and graduate student Raymond Gosling captured the high-resolution image known as Photo 51, which showed B-form DNA. In early 1953, John Randall told Gosling to give it to Wilkins. Wilkins then showed it to Watson without Franklin’s permission. This action has sparked much ethical and historical debate.
Using insights from Photo 51 and earlier data—including Wilkins’ own diffraction studies—Watson and Crick built their double helix model in March 1953. Wilkins kept doing experimental checks at the same time, producing confirmatory diffraction images that were published in the same issue of *Nature*.
Wilkins’ role went beyond just verification. He had led the DNA diffraction research at King’s before Franklin arrived, started the methods that led to Photo 51, and was central to sharing data and coordinating the lab’s DNA work—contributions often left out of historical accounts.
Later in his career, Wilkins expanded his research to RNA structure and studied the biological effects of radiation.
He shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Watson and Crick, awarded for discoveries about the molecular structure of nucleic acids and their importance for information transfer in living things. Franklin had died in 1958 and so was not eligible, but Wilkins acknowledged her work in his writings and interviews.
In 2000, King’s College London named a science building the Franklin-Wilkins Building to honor both of them. Wilkins insisted that Franklin’s name come first. In recent decades, scholars have increasingly recognized Wilkins’ role as fundamental to the DNA discovery effort.
Wilkins was born on 15 December 1916 in Pongaroa, New Zealand, where his father, Edgar Henry Wilkins, worked as a doctor. His older sister, Eithne Wilkins, was a translator and poet. His family came from Dublin; his paternal grandfather was Headmaster of Dublin High School, and his maternal grandfather was a Chief of Police. When Maurice was six, the family moved to Birmingham, England. He attended Wylde Green College and then King Edward’s School, Birmingham from 1929 to 1935.
In 1935, Wilkins went to St John’s College, Cambridge, where he studied the Natural Sciences Tripos, focusing on physics, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1938. One of his instructors, Mark Oliphant, had become Chair of Physics at the University of Birmingham and had brought John Randall onto his staff. Wilkins became a PhD student under Randall at the University of Birmingham. In 1945, they published four papers in the *Proceedings of the Royal Society* on phosphorescence and electron traps. Wilkins received his PhD for this work in 1940.
During World War II, Wilkins worked on improving radar screens at Birmingham and then on isotope separation for the Manhattan Project at the University of California, Berkeley from 1944 to 1945.
Meanwhile, Randall had become Chair of Physics at the University of St Andrews. In 1945, he appointed Wilkins as Assistant Lecturer there. Randall was negotiating with the Medical Research Council to set up a lab that would apply physics methods to biology—a new field called biophysics. The MRC said this had to be done at another university. In 1946, Randall was made Wheatstone Professor of Physics, in charge of the entire Physics department at King’s College, London, with funding to create a Biophysics Unit. He brought Wilkins along as Assistant Director. They hired a team of scientists trained in both physical and biological sciences. Their management approach was to try many techniques at once, see which looked promising, and then focus on those. Wilkins, as the scientist with the broadest physics experience and as Assistant Director, oversaw the various projects while also working on his own research, including new types of optical microscopy. King’s College received money to build entirely new Physics and Engineering Departments in vaults beneath the Strand-level college forecourt that had been destroyed by bombs during the war. The Biophysics Unit, along with several other experimental physics groups and a theoretical group, began moving in during early 1952. The labs were formally opened by Lord Cherwell on 27 June. Wilkins wrote an article for *Nature* describing both departments, reflecting his leadership role and standing within the college.
- born
- 15 December 1916, Pongaroa, New Zealand
- field
- Biophysics, physics
- nationality
- New Zealand-born British
- known_for
- X-ray diffraction studies of DNA; enabling the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA
Verified Timeline
Lore & Background
His family moved to Birmingham, England when he was six. He studied physics at St John's College, Cambridge, and earned a PhD under John Randall at the University of Birmingham, publishing work on phosphorescence and electron traps. By 1950, he and his team produced some of the first high-quality X-ray diffraction images of DNA fibers. He presented this work in 1951 at a conference in Naples, significantly influencing James Watson. In 1951, Rosalind Franklin joined King's College and was assigned to the same DNA project, though without clear leadership delineation. Tensions developed. In early 1953, Franklin's high-resolution Photo 51 was shown to Wilkins, who then showed it to Watson without Franklin's consent—an action subject to significant ethical and historiographical debate. Using insights from Photo 51 and prior data, Watson and Crick constructed their double helix model in March 1953. Wilkins simultaneously produced confirmatory diffraction images published in the same issue of Nature. In later years, he extended studies to RNA structure and radiation effects. In 2000, King's College named a building the Franklin-Wilkins Building; Wilkins insisted Franklin's name be put first.
Reader's Guide
Wilkins' significance lies in his foundational role in the DNA discovery effort. He initiated and led the X-ray diffraction work on DNA at King's College, produced early high-quality images, and presented data that inspired Watson and Crick. His sharing of Photo 51, while ethically contested, was pivotal to the double helix model. Scholarly reassessments have increasingly recognized his contributions as foundational, beyond mere verification. His career spanned phosphorescence, isotope separation, optical microscopy, and X-ray diffraction, reflecting a broad biophysical expertise. The Nobel Prize acknowledged his role in discoveries concerning molecular structure of nucleic acids and information transfer in living material. The naming of the Franklin-Wilkins Building, with Franklin's name first at his insistence, underscores his acknowledgment of her work.
Did You Know?
- Wilkins was born in Pongaroa, New Zealand, and moved to England at age six.
- He worked on the Manhattan Project on isotope separation during World War II.
- He insisted that Rosalind Franklin's name be put first on the Franklin-Wilkins Building at King's College London.
The 1953 Structure of DNA
In the annals of twentieth-century science, few moments carry the weight of 1953, the year the molecular architecture of DNA was finally determined. Maurice Wilkins stood among the four researchers—alongside James Watson, Francis Crick, and Rosalind Franklin—whose combined efforts revealed the structure that would redefine biology. This was not an isolated flash of insight but the culmination of a broader shift: genetics had moved from a contested field to one that was unanimously accepted and significantly developed across the scientific community. Wilkins' contribution placed him at the very center of a discovery that unlocked the mechanism of heredity itself, transforming how humanity understood the transmission of traits and the chemical basis of life. The determination of DNA's structure became the keystone upon which an entire edifice of molecular biology would be built, connecting the abstract principles of Mendelian inheritance to the tangible, three-dimensional world of molecules.
A Convergence of Disciplines
Wilkins' work did not emerge in a vacuum. The twentieth century witnessed a dramatic acceleration in scientific progress across the physical, life, and human sciences, each building upon the foundations laid in the nineteenth century. In biology specifically, the modern evolutionary synthesis—formulated between 1936 and 1947 through the convergence of multiple scientific disciplines—provided a widely accepted account of how species change over time. The role of sexual reproduction in driving evolutionary variation was understood, and phenomena such as bacterial conjugation were discovered, expanding the known mechanisms of genetic exchange. It was within this intellectually fertile environment, where genetics was being unanimously accepted as a rigorous science, that the question of DNA's physical structure became both pressing and answerable. Wilkins operated at the intersection of these converging threads, contributing to a field that was rapidly maturing from descriptive taxonomy into a mechanistic, molecular discipline.
From Structure to Sequence
The determination of DNA's structure in 1953 was not an endpoint but a launching pad. In the decades that followed, the scientific community developed techniques capable of reading the sequences encoded within the molecule, turning the static blueprint into a readable text. This progression culminated in the initiation of the Human Genome Project, an endeavor so vast that it extended beyond the close of the twentieth century without reaching completion. The trajectory did not stop there: in 1996, the first mammal was successfully cloned, demonstrating that the principles underlying DNA's structure could be harnessed to replicate an entire organism. Maurice Wilkins' name is inextricably linked to the starting point of this chain—his role in the 1953 determination of the structure that made all subsequent sequencing, genomic mapping, and reproductive cloning conceivable. Each later achievement, from reading individual nucleotide sequences to copying a whole animal, stands as a downstream consequence of the structural insight he helped provide.
The Century of Radical Transformation
Wilkins' contribution must be understood against the backdrop of a century that transformed nearly every domain of human knowledge and capability. The twentieth century saw the development of post-Newtonian physics, including special and general relativity and quantum mechanics, which in turn led to nuclear weapons and new atomic models that reshaped chemistry and materials science. In biology, advances produced large increases in food production and the elimination of diseases such as polio. Technologies first conceived at the century's turn—electricity, the automobile, the phonograph—were perfected and universally deployed, while the airplane went from a brief 1903 flight to transoceanic jets. The television and the computer revolutionized how information was disseminated. Within this extraordinary ferment, the determination of DNA's structure by Wilkins and his colleagues represented one of the most consequential breakthroughs in the life sciences, anchoring a field that would go on to reshape medicine, agriculture, and our understanding of what it means to be alive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Maurice Wilkins?
Maurice Wilkins was a New Zealand-born British biophysicist who became one of the key figures in unraveling the structure of DNA. He is best remembered for his pioneering X-ray diffraction work on the molecule at King's College London.
What was Maurice Wilkins's main scientific contribution?
He initiated and led early X-ray diffraction studies on DNA, producing data that was essential for identifying the double helix structure. His research provided the critical experimental foundation that enabled the full structural model to be proposed.
Where did Maurice Wilkins carry out his landmark DNA research?
His key work on X-ray diffraction of DNA was conducted at King's College London. This institution became the center of his most influential scientific contributions.
What major honor did Maurice Wilkins receive for his work?
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in recognition of his contributions to understanding the molecular structure of DNA. This cemented his place among the scientists most associated with the discovery of the double helix.
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