Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born on July 25, 1920, in London, England. She was the second of five children in a well-to-do and influential Jewish family. Her father, Ellis Franklin, was a banker and a member of the London County Council, while her mother, Muriel, was involved in charity work.
Rosalind attended St. Paul’s Girls’ School, one of the few schools in London that taught physics and chemistry to girls. Excelling in science and mathematics, she earned a scholarship to Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied chemistry. In 1941, she graduated with second-class honors, which was the highest academic achievement women could receive at that time, as women were not awarded full degrees by Cambridge until 1948. (Queen Elizabeth was the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Cambridge.)
During World War II, Rosalind worked for the British Coal Utilisation Research Association, where she conducted research on the physical chemistry of carbon and coal. Her work contributed to the understanding of the porosity of coal and led to improved gas masks for the war effort. In 1945, she earned her PhD from Cambridge University for her thesis on ‘The Physical Chemistry of Solid Organic Colloids with Special Reference to Coal and Related Materials’.
In 1947, Rosalind moved to Paris to work at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l’Etat. Here, she honed her skills in X-ray crystallography, a technique that would become central to her later work. under the mentorship of Jacques Mering, she became an expert in this field, which involves the study of crystal structures by analyzing the patterns produced when X-rays are diffracted through a crystal.
In 1951, Rosalind returned to London to join the Biophysics Unit at King’s College London, led by John Randall. She was recruited to work on the structure of DNA. Using her expertise in X-ray crystallography, Rosalind began to produce high-quality diffraction images of DNA fibers. One of her most famous photographs, known as Photo 51, provided critical evidence for the helical structure of DNA.
Rosalind’s meticulous work revealed that DNA had two distinct forms, which she labeled A and B. Photo 51, an image of the B form, showed a clear X-shaped pattern indicating a helical structure. This photograph and her precise measurements of the DNA helix’s dimensions were crucial in guiding James Watson and Francis Crick toward their model of the double helix structure of DNA. However, Rosalind’s contributions were not fully acknowledged at the time, and Watson and Crick published their findings in 1953 without properly crediting her work.
While Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for the discovery of the DNA structure, Rosalind’s critical contributions were largely overlooked. It was only later that her roles was more widely recognized, and she has since been celebrated for her vital contributions to one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century.
After leaving King’s College in 1953, Rosalind joined JD Bernal’s lab at Birkbeck College, where she focused on the structure of viruses. She made significant contributions to the understanding of the tobacco mosaic virus and the polio virus, publishing numerous papers and mentoring young scientists.
Despite battling ovarian cancer, Rosalind continued her research until her final days. She passed away on April 16, 1958, at the age of 37. Her early death cut short a brilliant career, but her scientific legacy continues to inspire and influence.
Over the years, Rosalind has received numerous posthumous honors. Institutions, awards, and scientific discoveries have been named in her memory, including the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science and the Rosalind Franklin Award for Women in Science. Books, documentaries, and plays have been created to celebrate her life and work, ensuring that her contributions to science are remembered and appreciated.