James Watson, DNA Double Helix Pioneer and Nobel Laureate, Dies at 97

James Watson — the American molecular biologist who helped unlock the structure of DNA and won the Nobel Prize for one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the 20th century — has died at the age of 97.

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in New York, where he spent much of his career, announced that Watson passed away on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island.

Watson, together with Francis Crick, discovered the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953 — a landmark moment that revolutionized modern biology and paved the way for advances in genetic research, medicine, forensics, and biotechnology.

In 1962, Watson shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Crick and Maurice Wilkins for their work on the molecular structure of nucleic acids, which explained how genetic information is stored and replicated.

Watson was only 25 years old when he and Crick made the breakthrough, using X-ray diffraction data produced by Rosalind Franklin at King’s College London. Her pivotal contributions were not recognized at the time, as the Nobel is neither awarded posthumously nor to more than three recipients.

“Their discovery of the ‘twisting ladder’ of DNA forever changed the understanding of life itself,” CSHL said in a statement Friday, praising Watson’s “extraordinary contributions” to molecular biology.

Born April 6, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, James Dewey Watson won a scholarship to the University of Chicago at age 15 and earned his Ph.D. in zoology from Indiana University in 1950. His academic path led him to Cambridge University, where he met Crick and began their legendary collaboration.

Watson’s memoir, The Double Helix (1968), became a bestseller celebrated for its candid depiction of scientific rivalry and ambition. He later held teaching positions at Harvard University and served as director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, transforming it into a world-class research centre.

From 1988 to 1992, he played a key leadership role in the Human Genome Project, which sought to map the complete set of human genes.

However, his later years were marked by controversy. Watson made several racist and sexist remarks, including a 2007 statement implying that people of African descent had lower intelligence — comments that cost him his chancellorship and tarnished his reputation. In 2019, after repeating similar remarks in a PBS documentary, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory stripped him of his emeritus status.

Watson is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and their two sons, Rufus and Duncan.

Despite the controversies, his role in decoding the structure of DNA remains one of science’s most defining achievements — one that reshaped medicine, genetics, and humanity’s understanding of life itself.

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