Norman Simmons

Norman Simmons (May 28, 1915 – January 27, 2004)

Life Norman Simmons was born in New York City in 1915. He obtained a B.S. at the City College of New York, a D.M.D.at Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in 1950 at University of Rochester, with a dissertation titled “Investigation of Submaxillary Mucoid and the Defense Mechanisms of the Mouth:" this was regarded as truly innovative. on proteins and polypeptides and was also recognized for isolating a structurally pure form of DNA. This was the DNA which Rosalind Franklin used in her X-ray diffraction studies that rewarded Maurice Wilkins, James Watson and Francis Crick with the Nobel Prize for the double helix model of DNA. In his Nobel Prize lecture of 1962, Wilkins thanked Simmons "for having refined techniques of isolating DNA, and thereby helping a great many workers including ourselves."