Brenda Maddox: Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA

On April 25, 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published their groundbreaking discovery of the double helix structure of DNA, the molecule essential for passing on our genes and the "secret of life." But their crucial breakthrough depended on the pioneering work of another biologist--Rosalind Franklin. In Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA, Maddox resurrects the reputation of a scientist of great achievement, and supplies an arresting portrait of an intelligent, highly principled and talented young woman who helped change the course of our knowledge about life on earth.

Brenda Maddox is an award-winning biographer whose work has been translated into ten languages. Her Nora: The Biography of Nora Joyce, won the Los Angeles Times Biography Award, the Silver P.E.N. Award, the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and was shortlisted for the National Book Award. Her Life of D.H. Lawrence won the Whitebread Biography Award in 1974 and her Yeats's Ghosts, on the married life of W.B. Yeats was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 1998. She served as chairman of the Association of British Science Writers and is a member of the Royal Society's Science and Society committee.

Parking is available in the Wilson Avenue parking structures between San Pasqual Street and Del Mar Boulevard.

This event is sponsored by the Caltech Women's Center, President's Office, Caltech Public Events, Office of the Faculty, Biology Division, History and Philosophy of Science Program, and Caltech Bookstore.