Watson, James


Watson, James

(1928-) American molecular biologist who, with Francis CRICK and Maurice WILKINS, put forward a model for the structure and functioning of DNA in 1953, work for which they shared a Nobel prize in 1962. Their double-helix model for DNA is now universally accepted, together with their general ideas for DNA replication. In 1990 Watson and many other scientists were involved in launching the HUMAN GENOME PROJECT.