Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins (15 December 1916 – 5 October 2004) was a New Zealand-born
English physicist and
molecular biologist, and
Nobel Laureate whose research contributed to the scientific understanding of
phosphorescence,
isotope separation,
optical microscopy and
X-ray diffraction, and to the development of
radar. He is best known for his work at
King's College, London on the structure of
DNA which falls into three distinct phases. The first was in 1948–50 where his initial studies produced the first clear X-ray images of DNA which he presented at a conference in Naples in 1951 attended by James Watson. During the second phase of work (1951–52) he produced clear "B form" "X" shaped images from squid sperm which he sent to
James Watson and
Francis Crick causing Watson to write "Wilkins... has obtained extremely excellent X-ray diffraction photographs" [of DNA].