Francis H.C. Crick (1916-2004) was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962, along with James D. Watson for their discovery of the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule, the building block of life. Acclaimed as their discovery was at the time, it has only grown in significance with the further development of molecular biology, and is now regarded as one of the most fundamental discoveries in the history of science. Crick was born in Northampton, England and graduated from the University of London, where he studied physics and mathematics. He served as a research scientist with the British Admiralty during World War II, and first took up the study of biology after the war. From 1947 until 1976, he worked for the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, England. He conducted his doctoral research at the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University, where James Watson and he made their historic discovery in 1953. From 1976 until his death, Dr. Crick carried on his research at the Salk Institute in San Diego, California and was a professor at the University of California, San Diego. After pioneering the fundamentals of molecular biology, his interests turned to neuroscience; his last years were devoted to exploring the biological basis of consciousness.