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James Watson

Also known as James Dewey Watson, James D. Watson

James Dewey Watson was an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he and Francis Crick co-authored an academic paper in Nature proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule, building on research by Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling. In 1962, Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 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".

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James Watson was an American molecular biologist who, along with Francis Crick, proposed the double helix structure of DNA in a 1953 paper that built on work by other researchers. This discovery was so significant that Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for revealing how DNA's structure enables information transfer in living organisms.

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Died: 1893
Works: 65

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Image: James D. Watson (cropped).jpg

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Commons category: James D. Watson
date of birth: 1928-04-06
Erdős number: 4
name in native language: James Dewey Watson
birth name: James Dewey Watson
start of work period: 1953-00-00
date of death: 2025-11-06
end of work period: 2025-00-00
pseudonym: el Caligula de la biología

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Article

James Dewey Watson (April 6, 1928 – November 6, 2025) was an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he and Francis Crick co-authored an academic paper in Nature proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule, building on research by Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling. In 1962, Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 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".

Watson graduated from the University of Chicago in 1947 and received his doctorate from Indiana University Bloomington in 1950. After a post-doctoral year at the University of Copenhagen with Herman Kalckar and Ole Maaløe, Watson worked at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory in England, where he met his future collaborator Francis Crick. From 1956 to 1976, Watson was employed by the faculty of the Harvard University Biology Department, promoting research in molecular biology.