James Watson became known in the scientific world in 1953 when he was only 25 years old. Together with Francis Crick, he discovered that DNA has the shape of a double helix. This discovery laid the foundation for understanding the transmission of genetic information and played a key role in the establishment of molecular biology. For this achievement, Watson, Crick, and their colleague Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962.
James Watson was born in Chicago in 1928. At the age of 15, he became a student at the University of Chicago, and then continued his studies at Indiana University under the guidance of Nobel laureates Hermann Müller and Salvador Luria. In 1968, he married Elizabeth Lewis, with whom he had two sons.
