Rosalind Franklin Statue in Chicago

Photo credit - courtesy of Julie Rotblatt Amrany and the Fine Art Studio of Rotblatt Amrany

In front of The Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago, IL, stands a larger-than-life bronze bust of the pioneering British chemist Rosalind Franklin.

Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) graduated in 1941 with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge. After researching coal at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association, she earned her Ph.D. from Cambridge in 1945. The following year, Franklin took a postdoctoral research position at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l’Etat, where he developed expert X-ray crystallography skills. In 1951, she became a research associate at King’s College London. There, Franklin discovered the DNA properties, which led to the breakthrough in understanding the DNA double helix structure. In her lifetime, she did not receive the recognition she deserved.

Sadly, while working on pioneering work on the molecular structures of viruses, she died of ovarian cancer at age 37. Four years before Crick, Watson and Wilkins won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the helical structure of the DNA molecule.

The Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago was founded as the Chicago Hospital-College of Medicine in 1912, a night school for medical students. With time, more schools and programs in health-related fields were added and renamed several times. In 2004 it was renamed Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. As of 2022, the private graduate school has five schools Chicago Medical School, College of Health Professions, College of Pharmacy, Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine, and School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

Sculptor Julie Rotblatt Amrany of Rotblatt-Amrany in Chicago was chosen by the university to create the statue honoring Franklin.

On May 29, 2014, Martin Franklin, her nephew, and Rosalind Franklin Jekowsky, her niece, who serves as a trustee for the university, unveiled the statue in a special ceremony.

The statue depicts Franklin in 1952, holding photo 51 in her left hand, an X-ray diffraction pattern of the B form of DNA that enabled the breakthrough in understanding the DNA structure. This image is also on the university’s seal and logo.

This statue joins the few statues and memorials honoring real women in Chicago. Click here to see the list.

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Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. 3333 N Green Bay Rd, North Chicago, IL 60064

 

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