Constellation Similarity Assertions

Francis Harry Compton Crick was born on June 8, 1916 in Weston Favell, a district of Northampton, in central England. At age 18, Crick attended University College London (UCL). In 1937, he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree, second honors, in Physics with a minor in mathematics. With family financial aid, Crick began graduate study at UCL until the outbreak of World War II interrupted his studies. Crick's war work involved research on magnetic and acoustic mines for the British Admiralty. Briefly, he worked for Naval Intelligence at Whitehall in London. In 1940, he married Ruth Doreen Dodd, a UCL English Literature undergraduate, and their son, Michael, was born during an air raid on November 25, 1940. After the war, Crick decided to move from physics to study "the division between the living and the non-living," choosing the field of study today termed molecular biology. In 1949, Crick joined the Medical Research Council (MRC) as a Cavendish Laboratory scientist, and at age 33, once again became a graduate student. Four years later, he obtained his PhD from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. In 1949, Crick married Odile Speed. Their first daughter, Gabrielle, was born in 1951, followed by Jacqueline in 1954. In 1952, Crick began his collaboration with James Watson that resulted in establishing the structure and function of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Later, both would both share the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Maurice Wilkins for these discoveries. The Cricks traveled frequently around the globe to symposiums and to give lectures. He was a visiting lecturer at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, Harvard University, UC Berkeley's virus laboratory, the University of Rochester, and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In the 1960's, Crick, along with Paul McCartney, Graham Greene and others collaborated to urge cannabis legal reform. Crick, an outspoken atheist and associated with various humanist organizations, sponsored an essay contest on what might be done with the Cambridge College chapels. Nobel fame brought television, movie and book offers. In the 1970's, Crick and Watson agreed to participate in the making of the documentary DNA STORY. 1976 marked the beginning of the family's transition to California. First, Crick visited during an eight-month sabbatical and then accepted an offer to become the Kieckhefer Professor at the Salk Institute of Biological Sciences in La Jolla. The Cricks moved to coastal California and later bought land eighty-five miles east in the desert town of Borrego Springs where they built a house and enjoyed desert gardening. In 1994-1995, Crick served as President of the Salk Institute, but resigned after after having heart surgery in 1995. In 2001, Crick was diagnosed with colon cancer. He continued to work and was able to attend many of the functions associated with the 50th Anniversary of the double helix discovery. He died at age 88 on July 28, 2004. Crick was survived by Odile, his wife of 55 years, his three children and four grandchildren. Among the many honors beyond the Nobel Prize, Crick was awarded the Prix Charles Leopold Meyer, the Gairdner Foundation's Award of Merit, the Warren Triennial Prize Lecture, Foreign Honorary Membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, fellowships from UCL, Churchill College, Gonville and Caius College, and U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Royal Society, French Academy of Sciences and Irish Academy Memberships.

From the description of Francis Crick personal papers, 1938-2007. (University of California, San Diego). WorldCat record id: 76807030

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