Rosalind Franklin

Born in 1920, Rosalind is a chemist from the UK recognized for her contributions to molecular structures of DNA, RNA, graphite, coal, and viruses. Upon earning her PhD in 1945, Rosalind moved to Paris for her post-doctoral research where she became an accomplished X-ray crystallographer.

Rosalind's affluent Jewish family was also known to have helped settle Jewish refugees from Europe who had escaped persecution by the Nazis. She died at the young age of 37 due to ovarian cancer, but others went on to continue her research which culminated in her colleague Aaron Klug winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982.