Francis CrickBirth Chart

Francis Harry Compton Crick was a British molecular biologist, biophysicist and neuroscientist, celebrated for proposing the double-helix model of DNA in 1953 with James Watson. Supported by the crystallographic evidence then available, that work transformed understanding of the structure of nucleic acids and laid the foundations of modern molecular genetics. In 1962 he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Watson and Maurice Wilkins.

Over his career Crick played a central role in deciphering the genetic code — he formulated the adaptor hypothesis (associated with tRNA) and the so-called “central dogma” of molecular biology, which describes the flow of genetic information. He worked for decades at institutes such as the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and later as a research professor at the Salk Institute in La Jolla.

In subsequent decades he redirected his research toward theoretical neuroscience and the scientific study of consciousness, proposing hypotheses about REM sleep functions and advocating a rigorous biological approach to explaining the mind. He received numerous scientific honors during his life and left a lasting legacy in molecular biology and neuroscience.