Overview
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory announced his death at 97 and noted his shared 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for unveiling DNA’s double-helix structure.
- The model explained genetic replication and laid the groundwork for modern molecular biology, including genome sequencing and molecular diagnostics.
- He led Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory from 1968, shaping it into a leading genetics center, and later helped initiate the Human Genome Project.
- Institutions cut ties after his statements about race and intelligence; Cold Spring Harbor revoked his honorary titles while the Nobel distinction remained.
- In 2014 he auctioned his Nobel medal, which Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov bought and later returned, and U.S. outlets have reported he subsequently lived in care following a car accident.