Rosalind Franklin was born in London, England in 1920. She received her Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge University in 1945, where she studied under the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Sir John Douglas Cockcroft.
After graduating from Cambridge, Franklin continued to pursue her passion for science by studying chemistry at the same university. During this time she researched the structure of coal and graphite.
In 1951, Rosalind Franklin joined King’s College London as a research associate. Using X-ray crystallography techniques, she studied DNA and discovered its double helix structure. This work was highly influential in advancing our understanding of genetics and biology as a whole.
Franklin also did important work on viruses including polio; her findings on this topic led directly to Jonas Salk’s development of an effective vaccine against the disease that devastated many children around the world before it was eradicated thanks to his efforts along with those who worked with him on this project including Albert Sabin who developed an oral polio vaccine in 1957 based on research done by others including Dr Thomas Weller who also used research done by Dr John Enders who began working with him when they were both still young men at Massachusetts General Hospital where they first met each other after being hired there
