James Dewey Watson
James Dewey Watson was an American geneticist and biophysicist. Noted
for his decisive work in the discovery of the molecular structure of
DNA, the hereditary material associated with the transmission of genetic
information. He shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with
Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins in 1962
Early Life and Education:
James Watson was born in 1928 in Chicago, Illinois and his father was
a tax collector of Scottish ancestry. He attended the University of
Chicago, Indiana University and the Cavendish Laboratory of the
University of Cambridge with Francis Crick. He was appointed a faculty member at Harvard University, and a few years later, the director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Contributions and Achievements:
James Watson gained worldwide fame and prominence as the joint author
of the four scientific papers between 1953 and 1954 (which he co-wrote
with fellow scientist Francis Crick) that laid down the double helical
structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), a megamolecule that is the
fundamental substance in the process of genetic replication. This
discovery won Watson and Crick (with Maurice Wilkins) the Nobel Prize in
physiology or medicine in 1962.
During the 1960s, Watson became one of the most celebrated science
writers, as he published his textbook “Molendor Biology of the Gene” in
1965, and his best-selling autobiographical book “The Double Helix” in
1968. Watson became the undisputed leading voice in the whole of
American science. He epitomized the scientific creativity in 20th
century science, giving rise to molecular biology and its two applied
offsets; biotechnology and the “Human Genome Project”.
