John Kendrew (1917-1997; left) and Max Perutz (1914-2002; right) founded the laboratory where Watson and Crick made their discovery—the Medical Research Council Unit for Molecular Biology, at Cambridge University. Kendrew and Perutz were using x-ray diffraction to study the structures of proteins, in particular hemoglobin. They shared a Nobel Prize for their work in 1962.

Credit: Medical Research Council.