Illustration of Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958), British X-ray crystallographer. Her work producing x-ray images of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid), shown in the upper right, was crucial in the discovery of the structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick. Franklin's x-ray images of DNA crystals were of the highest quality, and recognized a number of elements of the structure of DNA. These images were crucial to Watson and Crick finalizing the structure of DNA. Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins (Franklin's colleague at King's College) won the Nobel Prize in 1962 for the discovery of DNA's structure. Unfortunately, Franklin had died of cancer by then, and was thus ineligible for the award.