1916-

New Zealand-born British molecular biologist who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize with James Watson and Francis Crick for their 1953 discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. Wilkins established methods for the preparation of crystalline DNA fibers and attempted to use x-ray diffraction analysis to determine the structure of DNA. Conflicts between Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin led Wilkins to collaborate with Watson and Crick. Based on Franklin's x-ray photographs and their own model-building work, Watson and Crick proposed the double helix.