BIOLOGIST

Rosalind Franklin

1920 - 1958

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Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 1920 – 16 April 1958) was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer. Her work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, Franklin's contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognised during her life, for which Franklin has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology". Franklin graduated in 1941 with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge, and then enrolled for a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, the 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Read more on Wikipedia

Her biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Rosalind Franklin is the 11th most popular biologist, the 142nd most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 122nd in 2019) and the 3rd most popular British Biologist.

Rosalind Franklin discovered the double helix structure of DNA.

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Among BIOLOGISTS

Among biologists, Rosalind Franklin ranks 11 out of 1,097Before her are James Watson, Ivan Pavlov, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Ernst Haeckel, and Konrad Lorenz. After her are Karl Landsteiner, Robert Edwards, Robert Brown, Georges Cuvier, George Beadle, and Alfred Russel Wallace.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1920, Rosalind Franklin ranks 6Before her are Pope John Paul II, Federico Fellini, Isaac Asimov, Yul Brynner, and Charles Bukowski. After her are Toshiro Mifune, Farouk of Egypt, Juan Antonio Samaranch, Ray Bradbury, George Shultz, and Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. Among people deceased in 1958, Rosalind Franklin ranks 2Before her is Pope Pius XII. After her are Wolfgang Pauli, Imre Nagy, Roger Martin du Gard, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Kurt Alder, Tyrone Power, Faisal II of Iraq, Clinton Davisson, Ernest Lawrence, and John B. Watson.

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Rosalind Franklin ranks 142 out of 8,785Before her are Christopher Lee (1922), Mary Shelley (1797), William Harvey (1578), Catherine Parr (1512), Macbeth, King of Scotland (1005), and Henry Morgan (1635). After her are Brian Josephson (1940), Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom (1857), Nicholas Winton (1909), Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806), William Ramsay (1852), and J. M. W. Turner (1775).

Among BIOLOGISTS In United Kingdom

Among biologists born in United Kingdom, Rosalind Franklin ranks 3Before her are Charles Darwin (1809), and Alexander Fleming (1881). After her are Robert Edwards (1925), Robert Brown (1773), Alfred Russel Wallace (1823), John Boyd Orr (1880), Thomas Henry Huxley (1825), John Sulston (1942), Francis Crick (1916), John Edward Gray (1800), and Christian de Duve (1917).