29 de March de 2023
Women and science. The public space recognises the work of the London chemist and crystallographer, who played a key role in the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA and in the advancement of science.
On 28 March, the ceremony was held to unveil the plaque dedicated to the chemist, physicist and crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, which now gives its name to a square in the Sant Martí district located in a space next to the La Pau School, at the end of the Xavier Llorens passage. This is one of the sixteen spaces in Barcelona that will be named after women this month, in the framework of 8 March, and with which the City Council wants to reduce the disproportion of streets dedicated to male personalities compared to female ones.
Born in London in 1920, Rosalind Franklin graduated in Chemistry-Physics in 1941 from Newnham College, Cambridge, and received her PhD in Chemistry in 1945 from the University of Cambridge. She pioneered the use of X-ray diffraction and, despite her short career (she died of cancer in 1954), was involved in numerous discoveries. The square that bears her name gives visibility to a scientist who, among other contributions, was instrumental in the discovery of the double helix molecular structure of DNA, the molecule that contains the genetic information of living beings. Without her contribution, James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins would not have received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962.
The unveiling of the plaque in Rosalind Franklin Square brought together various representatives of the neighbourhood, the educational community and Barcelona’s scientific ecosystem. Among them were Ada Ferrer, president of the Barcelona Science Advisory Council and senior scientist at the Institute of Economic Analysis of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
