Francis Crick Timeline

Crick was in the right place, in the right frame of mind, at the right time (1949) to join Max Perutz's project at the University of Cambridge, where he began to work on the X-ray crystallography of proteins.

In 1953, Watson and Crick published another article in Nature stating: 'it therefore seems likely that the precise sequence of the bases is the code that carries the genetical information'.

Image source: Genetic code

In 1956, Crick wrote an informal paper about the genetic coding problem for the small group of scientists in Gamow's RNA group, and he and Watson speculated on the structure of small viruses.

One of the most uninspiring acts of the University of Cambridge over the past century was to turn down Francis Crick when he applied to be the Professor of Genetics in 1958, a fact recorded in Soraya De Chadarevian's Designs For Life (2002).

Image source: University of Cambridge

In his 1958 article, Crick speculated, as had others, that a triplet of nucleotides could code for an amino acid.

Crick was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1959, and later also became a Fellow of the International Academy of Humanism and CSICOP.

Image source: Royal Society

In 1960, Crick accepted an honorary fellowship at Churchill College, Cambridge, one factor being that the new college did not have a chapel. He had been a nonresident fellow of the Salk Institute since 1960.

Image source: Churchill College, Cambridge

An important step was the realisation by Crick and Sydney Brenner on 15 April 1960 during a conversation with François Jacob that messenger RNA was not the same thing as ribosomal RNA.

Image source: Messenger RNA

Together with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins, Crick was jointly awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 'for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material'. He was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences that year.

Image source: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Crick refused an offer of a CBE in 1963, but was often referred to in error as 'Sir Francis Crick' and even on occasions as 'Lord Crick'.

Image source: Order of the British Empire

Crick was elected an EMBO Member in 1964.

Image source: European Molecular Biology Organization

In 1966, Crick took the place of Leslie Orgel at a meeting where Orgel was to talk about the origin of life. That same year, his brother Anthony predeceased him.

Image source: Abiogenesis

Crick was elected a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1969.

Image source: National Academy of Sciences

In October 1969, Crick participated in a celebration of the 100th year of the journal Nature, attempting predictions about the next 30 years of molecular biology, briefly mentioning the search for extraterrestrial life but holding little hope it would be found by 2000.

Image source: Nature (journal)

Crick received the Royal medal of the Royal Society in 1972 and the Copley Medal in 1975, and was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1972.

Image source: Copley Medal

In 1976, Crick addressed the origin of protein synthesis in a paper with Sydney Brenner, Aaron Klug, and George Pieczenik.

Image source: Ribosome

In 1987, Crick received the Golden Plate Award of the US Academy of Achievement.

Image source: American Academy of Achievement

In 1976, Crick took a sabbatical year at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, after which he moved to California permanently, leaving Cambridge after 30 years having refused the Mastership of Gonville and Caius.

Image source: Salk Institute for Biological Studies

In 1983, based on studies of computer models of neural networks, Crick and Mitchison proposed that the function of REM sleep and dreaming is to remove certain modes of interactions in networks of cells in the mammalian cerebral cortex, calling this hypothetical process 'reverse learning' or 'unlearning'.

Image source: Rapid eye movement sleep

In the final phase of his career, Crick established a collaboration with Christof Koch that led to publication of a series of articles on consciousness spanning 1990 to 2005.

Image source: Christof Koch

In 1995 Francis Crick signed the Ashley Montagu Resolution petitioning the International Court of Justice to help end genital mutation of children, including female genital mutilation, circumcision, and penile subincision.

Crick asked in 1998 'and if some of the Bible is manifestly wrong, why should any of the rest of it be accepted automatically?'

In 2003 Crick was one of 22 Nobel laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto. That same year, the Francis Crick Medal and Lecture was established following an endowment by Sydney Brenner.

Crick died of colon cancer on the morning of 28 July 2004 at UCSD Thornton Hospital in La Jolla; he was cremated and his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean. He remained editing a manuscript on his death bed, 'a scientist until the bitter end' according to Christof Koch.

A private memorial for family and colleagues was held on 3 August 2004.

A public memorial was held on 27 September 2004 at the Salk Institute, La Jolla; guest speakers included James Watson, Sydney Brenner, Alex Rich, Seymour Benzer, Aaron Klug, Christof Koch, Pat Churchland, Vilayanur Ramachandran, Tomaso Poggio, Leslie Orgel, Terry Sejnowski, his son Michael Crick, and his daughter Jacqueline Nichols.

A sculpture entitled Discovery, by artist Lucy Glendinning, was installed on 13 December 2005 in Abington Street, Northampton.

Image source: Northampton

Westminster City Council unveiled a green plaque to Francis Crick on the front façade of 56 St George's Square, Pimlico, London SW1 on 20 June 2007; Crick lived in the first floor flat together with Robert Dougall of BBC fame.

Image source: Pimlico

At a meeting of the executive council of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry in Denver, Colorado in April 2011, Crick was selected for inclusion in CSI's Pantheon of Skeptics.

Image source: Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

Crick featured in the BBC Radio 4 series The New Elizabethans to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2012.

A bronze bust was first displayed at the Francis Crick Memorial Conference (on Consciousness) at Churchill College, Cambridge on 7 July 2012; it was bought by Mill Hill School in May 2013 and displayed at the inaugural Crick Dinner on 8 June 2013.

Image source: Mill Hill School

Crick's 1953 handwritten letter to his son Michael was put up for auction at Christie's New York on 10 April 2013 with an estimate of $1 to $2 million, eventually selling for $6,059,750, the largest amount ever paid for a letter at auction.

Image source: Christie's

Crick's Nobel Prize medal and diploma from the Nobel committee was sold at Heritage Auctions in June 2013 for $2,270,000.

Image source: Heritage Auctions

Completed in 2016, the Francis Crick Institute is the largest centre for biomedical research and innovation in Europe.

Image source: Francis Crick Institute