James Watson, the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA's double-helix structure, has died aged 97, his former lab said.
The eminent biologist died Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, said the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career.
He became among the 20th century's most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick.
But in his later years, Mr Watson's reputation was tarnished by comments on genetics and race that led him to be ostracised by the scientific establishment.
Along with Mr Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for their work - momentous research that gave rise to modern biology and opened the door to new insights including on genetic code and protein synthesis.
It marked a new era of modern life, allowing for revolutionary technologies in medicine, forensics and genetics - ranging from criminal DNA testing to genetically manipulated plants.
Mr Watson went on to do groundbreaking work in cancer research and mapping the human genome.
But he came under fire in 2007 and bowed out of public view for controversial remarks regarding the intelligence levels between races of people.
He apologised, but was swiftly removed as his lab's chancellor and his public image never recovered.
In 2013, Mr Watson was asked about comments he made in which he referred to ignorance being the curse of the Irish.
He said he was not implying that Irish people were stupid.
He was also routinely criticial of female scientists, including Rosalind Franklin, whose work on X-ray diffraction images of DNA offered the clue that made Mr Watson and Mr Crick's modeling possible.
Ms Franklin, who worked with Mr Wilkins, did not receive the Nobel Prize.
She died in 1958 and the prestigious prize is neither shared by more than three people nor given posthumously.
James Dewey Watson was born on 6 April 1928 in Chicago, Illinois.
At the age of 15 he won a scholarship to the University of Chicago.
In 1947, he received a degree in zoology before attending Indiana University in Bloomington, where he received his PhD in zoology in 1950.
Mr Watson became interested in the work of scientists working at the University of Cambridge in England with photographic patterns made by X-rays.
After moving to the University of Copenhagen, Mr Watson began his investigation of the structure of DNA.
In 1951, he went to the Zoological Station in Naples, where he met researcher Maurice Wilkins and saw for the first time crystalline DNA's X-ray diffraction pattern.
Before long, he met Mr Crick and started what would go down as a celebrated partnership.
Working with X-ray images obtained by Ms Franklin and Mr Wilkins, researchers at King's College in London, Mr Watson and Mr Crick started their historic work of puzzling out the double helix.
Their first serious effort came up short.
But their second attempt resulted in the pair presenting the double-helical configuration, a now iconic image that resembles a twisting ladder.
Their model also showed how the DNA molecule could duplicate itself, thus answering a fundamental question in the field of genetics.
Mr Watson and Mr Crick published their findings in the British journal Nature in April - May 1953 to great acclaim.
Mr Watson taught at Harvard University for 15 years before becoming director of what today is known as the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which he transformed into a global hub of molecular biology research.
From 1988 to 1992, he was one of the directors of the Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health, where he oversaw the mapping of the genes in the human chromosomes.
But his comments on race and obesity - he was also known to make sexist remarks - triggered his retirement in 2007.
The lab severed all ties with him in 2020, including his emeritus status, after he once again made similar statements.
