Chemist
Dr. Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer.
FAST FACTS:
- She earned a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1945 when women were rarely seen in the profession
- She was trying to figure out the structure of DNA in the 1940s and was able to take extremely clear pictures showing that DNA was a double helix
- Unfortunately, her two male coworkers, Watson and Crick, took her images and used them to create their own model of the structure of DNA. They received all of the credit for figuring out its structure while Franklin was unrecognized for her crucial contribution for over 50 years
- Franklin also did important work into the structure of different viruses
- She is finally getting the recognition she deserves for making such a groundbreaking discovery
- In 2004, there was a university dedicated to her called the Rosalind Franklin University
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