PHYSICIST

Maurice Wilkins

1916 - 2004

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Icon of person Maurice Wilkins

Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins (15 December 1916 – 5 October 2004) was a New Zealand-born British biophysicist and Nobel laureate whose research spanned multiple areas of physics and biophysics, contributing to the scientific understanding of phosphorescence, isotope separation, optical microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. He is known for his work at King's College London on the structure of DNA. Wilkins' work on DNA falls into two distinct phases. The first was in 1948–1950, when 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. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Maurice Wilkins has received more than 790,695 page views. His biography is available in 67 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 66 in 2019). Maurice Wilkins is the 154th most popular physicist (down from 131st in 2019), the 4th most popular biography from New Zealand and the 2nd most popular New Zealander Physicist.

Maurice Wilkins is most famous for his work with Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, and Francis Crick in discovering the double helix structure of DNA.

Memorability Metrics

  • 790k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 66.08

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 67

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 9.87

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.93

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Maurice Wilkins ranks 154 out of 851. Before him are Simon van der Meer, Karl Schwarzschild, Willard Boyle, Johann Jakob Balmer, Albert Fert, and Hans Geiger. After him are Arthur Compton, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Hugh Everett III, Henry Moseley, Nicolaas Bloembergen, and Klaus Fuchs.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1916, Maurice Wilkins ranks 23. Before him are Ruth Handler, Harold Wilson, Yehudi Menuhin, Herbert A. Simon, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, and Hans Eysenck. After him are Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Alexander Prokhorov, Camilo José Cela, Jack Vance, Robert McNamara, and Frederick Chapman Robbins. Among people deceased in 2004, Maurice Wilkins ranks 23. Before him are Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, Christopher Reeve, Akhmad Kadyrov, Janet Leigh, and Helmut Newton. After him are Renata Tebaldi, Stieg Larsson, Laura Branigan, Leônidas, Carlos Kleiber, and Ingrid Thulin.

Others Born in 1916

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Others Deceased in 2004

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In New Zealand

Among people born in New Zealand, Maurice Wilkins ranks 4 out of 303. Before him are Ernest Rutherford (1871), Edmund Hillary (1919), and Russell Crowe (1964). After him are Bruce McLaren (1937), Peter Jackson (1961), Katherine Mansfield (1888), Denny Hulme (1936), Alan MacDiarmid (1927), Thomas Williams (1930), Helen Clark (1950), and Chris Amon (1943).

Others born in New Zealand

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Among PHYSICISTS In New Zealand

Among physicists born in New Zealand, Maurice Wilkins ranks 2. Before him are Ernest Rutherford (1871).

New Zealander born Physicists

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