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PHYSICIST

Maurice Wilkins

1916 - 2004

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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, and to the development of radar. 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 669,317 page views. His biography is available in 66 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 64 in 2019). Maurice Wilkins is the 131st most popular physicist (up from 137th in 2019), the 4th most popular biography from New Zealand (up from 5th in 2019) 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

  • 670k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 65.93

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 66

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 9.75

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.79

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Maurice Wilkins by language


Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Maurice Wilkins ranks 131 out of 717. Before him are Isidor Isaac Rabi, Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, Arno Allan Penzias, Percy Williams Bridgman, Charles Glover Barkla, and Hans Georg Dehmelt. After him are Ernest Lawrence, Igor Tamm, Josiah Willard Gibbs, Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron, Albert Fert, and François Englert.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1916, Maurice Wilkins ranks 20. Before him are Ahmed Ben Bella, Herbert A. Simon, João Havelange, Ferruccio Lamborghini, Hans Eysenck, and Yehudi Menuhin. After him are Camilo José Cela, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Robert McNamara, Frederick Chapman Robbins, Dương Văn Minh, and Natalia Ginzburg. Among people deceased in 2004, Maurice Wilkins ranks 20. Before him are Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Peter Ustinov, Ahmed Yassin, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, and Akhmad Kadyrov. After him are Helmut Newton, Janet Leigh, Stieg Larsson, Renata Tebaldi, Leônidas, and Carlos Kleiber.

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 248. Before him are Ernest Rutherford (1871), Edmund Hillary (1919), and Russell Crowe (1964). After him are Bruce McLaren (1937), Peter Jackson (1961), Denny Hulme (1936), Katherine Mansfield (1888), Burt Munro (1899), Wallace Fard Muhammad (1893), Jane Campion (1954), and Martin Campbell (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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