# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/james-watson
# Generated: 2026-09-02T06:05:34.995Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/james-watson"
name: "James Watson"
slug: "james-watson"
description: "He co-discovered the double helix in 1953 and won a Nobel for it, then spent decades running Cold Spring Harbor into a molecular biology powerhouse — until comments linking race and intelligence ended his career in disgrace."
tagline: "American molecular biologist, geneticist, zoologist and Nobel Laureate (1928–2025)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/James_D._Watson_(cropped).jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
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  isoCode: "US"
category:
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  slug: "scientists"
profileType:
  name: "Scientist"
  slug: "scientist"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1928-04-06"
deathDate: "2025-11-06"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
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  momentum:             1.730687455705174
  historical:           25.091772
  currentAttention:     18.64531234180419
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
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  country:  null
  category: 93
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# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Watson graduated from the University of Chicago in 1947, earned his doctorate from Indiana in 1950, and landed at Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, where he met Francis Crick. In 1953 they published the double helix structure of DNA in Nature, building on Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling's research; Watson later made derogatory comments about Franklin and faced criticism for misogyny. The Nobel came in 1962, shared with Crick and Maurice Wilkins. Watson taught at Harvard from 1956 to 1976, then directed Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory starting in 1968, transforming it into a leading cancer and molecular biology research center. He helped establish the Human Genome Project between 1988 and 1992, which finished mapping the human genome in 2003. In 2007 he resigned as chancellor after claiming a genetic link between race and intelligence; in 2019, Cold Spring Harbor revoked his titles and cut all ties after he repeated the claims on camera.