Rosalind Franklin

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Rosalind Franklin was born in 1920 in London, England to an influential Jewish family who prided themselves in their service to the public. She was one of five children to Ellis and Muriel Franklin. Her father had desired to become a scientist, but World War I had prevented him and instead he followed in the family business of merchant banking. His daughter, however, had decided to devote herself to science and scientific study when she was fifteen.
She began her studies at St. Paul’s Girls’ School with her family discouraging her from aiming to get into the scientific field, mainly because it was difficult for a woman of that time. She gained a degree in physics with a specialty in chemistry from Newnham College before receiving admission to Cambridge University. Unfortunately, her father was opposed to the education of women and refused to pay for Rosalind’s tuition. Luckily, an aunt stepped up and offered to pay for her education, feeling that Rosalind should attend school. Her own mother was also in favor of Rosalind receiving an education and soon her father gave in.
With her graduation, she was granted a research scholarship to complete her graduate work. She spent a year with R.G.W. Norrish with little success and constant friction between the two. Norrish went on record to state that he disapproved of Franklin because she was more interested in “raising the status of her sex to equality with men” (JWA). How true this statement is about Rosalind Franklin’s character is hard to determine. It seems to be opinioned based more so than “fact.”
After her struggling career with Norrish, Rosalind Franklin went to work as an Air Raid Warden before taking a position with BCURA or the British Coal Utilization Research Association. ...

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Lee, J.J. (2013, July 25). Google Doodle Honors Legendary Female Scientist Rosalind Franklin.
Retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130725-google-doodle-rosalind-franklin-birthday-dna-science/

Glynn, J. (2008, June 20). Rosalind Franklin: 50 Years on. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.db23.linccweb.org/stable/20462671 Chan, S. and Conova, S. (2002). Rosalind Franklin. Retrieved from http://dnaft.org/19/bio-3.html Young, G., Tikkanen, A., Parrott-Sheffer, C., and Setia, V. (2013, September 13). Rosalind
Franklin. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/2173941/Rosali nd-Franklin (2012, November 26). The Rosalind Franklin Papers. Retrieved from http://profiles.nlm.gov/KR/

Goldman, J. (2003, April 22). Rosalind Franklin. Retrieved from
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/franklin.html

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