Maurice Wilkins (1916-2004), British biophysicist and cowinner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Wilkins shared the prize with American biochemist James Watson and British biophysicist Francis Crick for their studies on the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the genetic molecule found in all organisms. The discovery of the structure of DNA set the stage for rapid advances in molecular biology over the next 50 years.

Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins was born in Pongaroa, New Zealand, and moved to England as a child. He studied physics at St. John’s College at the University of Cambridge. He then pursued postgraduate work on the role of electrons in luminescence at the University of Birmingham, receiving a Ph.D. degree in 1940. During the early years of World War II (1939-1945) Wilkins applied his postgraduate research to improving the cathode-ray screens used in radar. He then began working on the separation of isotopes in bombs. In 1943 he moved to Berkeley, California, where he worked on the top-secret Manhattan Project, helping to develop the first atomic bomb.

After the war Wilkins became disillusioned by nuclear physics and its warfare applications. He changed his research focus to the relatively new field of biophysics, which applies the principles and techniques of physics to biology. In 1946 he became a member of the Medical Research Council (MRC) at King's College in London. He advanced to the position of deputy director of the MRC in 1955 and director of the college’s Cell Biophysics Unit in 1974. He became professor emeritus of biophysics at King’s College in 1981.

When he first arrived at the MRC, Wilkins worked on the genetic effects of ultrasound, high-frequency sound used for medical purposes. He then turned his attention to the use of X-ray diffraction to probe the structure of DNA. Working in the same laboratory as British physical chemist Rosalind Franklin, Wilkins bombarded DNA with an X-ray beam. The patterns formed by the scattered X rays showed that the DNA molecule appeared to have a double spiral structure. On the basis of the X-ray diffraction work of both Wilkins and Franklin, Watson and Crick deduced the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. Over the next ten years Wilkins published a number of papers that verified the Watson-Crick model.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Wilkins also received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1960 for his contributions to this groundbreaking work. He was made Companion of the British Empire in 1962. In 2003, Wilkins published his autobiography, The Third Man of the Double Helix.