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Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was crucial to understanding the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. She is best known for her role in the discovery of the structure of DNA.

Franklin earned a PhD in physical chemistry from Cambridge University. She then worked at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association and later at King's College London. At King's, she obtained groundbreaking X-ray diffraction images of DNA fibers, most notably "Photo 51", which provided key insights into the molecule's helical structure.

Despite her significant contributions, Franklin's role in the discovery of DNA's structure was not fully recognized during her lifetime. Maurice Wilkins, a colleague at King's College, shared her data, including Photo 51, with James Watson and Francis Crick without her knowledge or consent. Watson and Crick used this information to build their DNA model, which earned them the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Franklin had passed away four years earlier due to ovarian cancer, and the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously.

In recent years, there has been a growing acknowledgment of Rosalind Franklin's vital contributions to our understanding of DNA, and she is now widely recognized as a pioneer in molecular biology.