Portal:New Zealand/Selected article/Week 51, 2006

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins CBE FRS (15 December 1916 – 5 October 2004) was a New Zealand-born British physicist and Nobel Laureate who contributed research in the fields of phosphorescence, radar, isotope separation, and X-ray diffraction.

He was most widely known for his X-ray diffraction work in the early 1950s at King's College London which led to the discovery of the helical structure of DNA.

In 1960 he was presented with the American Public Health Association's Albert Lasker Award, and in 1962 he was made a Companion of the British Empire. Also in 1962, he, Francis Crick and James Watson were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.