Alexander (Alec) Rawson Stokes (27 June 1919 – 5 February 2003) was a co-author of the second of the three papers published sequentially in
Nature on 25 April 1953 announcing the presumed molecular
structure of DNA. The first was authored by
Francis Crick and
James Watson, and the third by
Rosalind Franklin and
Raymond Gosling. The
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded in 1962 to Crick, Watson and Wilkins for this work. In 1993, on the 40th anniversary of the publication of the molecular structure of DNA, a plaque was erected in the Quad (courtyard) of the Strand campus of
King's College London commemorating the contributions of Franklin, Gosling, Stokes, Wilson and Wilkins to
DNA X-ray diffraction studies.