James Watson (b. 1928) is an American
molecular biologist,
geneticist and
zoologist, best known for discovering the
double helix structure of
DNA in 1953 jointly with
Francis Crick. Watson, Crick, and
Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of
nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material". Educated at the
University of Chicago and
Indiana University, Watson met Crick at the
University of Cambridge's
Cavendish Laboratory in England, where they were still working when they deduced the structure. Watson wrote of the discovery in his book,
The Double Helix (1968), and promoted further study of molecular biology while serving as director of
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) on
Long Island, New York.Photograph:
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; edit:
Jan Arkesteijn