Born Dec. 15, 1916, in Pongaroa, New Zealand. British biophysicist. Fellow of the Royal Society (1959).

Wilkins graduated from Cambridge University and received a Ph.D. degree from Birmingham University in 1940. In 1945 he taught at St. Andrews University. In 1946 he joined the faculty of King’s College, University of London, where he became a professor and chairman of the department of molecular biology in 1962 and a professor of biophysics in 1970.

Wilkins confirmed the double-helix molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid by using X-ray diffraction analysis. He has conducted research on luminescence and the electron trap theory of phosphorescence and on the biophysics of the nervous system. In 1962, Wilkins won the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine jointly with F. Crick and J. Watson.