William Astbury

William Astbury
Born
William Thomas Astbury

(1898-02-25)25 February 1898
Longton, England
Died4 June 1961(1961-06-04) (aged 63)
Leeds, England
CitizenshipBritish
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
Known forBeta sheet
Fiber diffraction
X-ray diffraction of DNA
AwardsActonian Prize (1935)
Croonian Medal (1945)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics, Molecular biology
InstitutionsUniversity College London
Royal Institution
University of Leeds
Doctoral advisorWilliam Henry Bragg[1]

William Thomas Astbury FRS (25 February 1898 – 4 June 1961) was an English physicist and molecular biologist who made pioneering X-ray diffraction studies of biological molecules.[1] His work on keratin provided the foundation for Linus Pauling's discovery of the alpha helix. He also studied the structure for DNA in 1937 and made the first step in the elucidation of its structure.

  1. ^ a b G Ferry (2014) Of DNA and broken dreams, Nature 510(7503), 32–33.