UCD Imagine Science Film Festival are delighted to present a rare and intimate audience with James Watson, esteemed American molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist best known as the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1962, Watson has held positions at University of Chicago, Indiana University and University of Cambridge. Watson will be in conversation with Dr John Bowman, broadcaster and historian. John Bowman is author of a recent history of Irish television. Window and Mirror: RTE Television, 1961-2011

In 1956, Watson became a junior member of Harvard University’s Biological Laboratories, holding this position until 1976, promoting research in molecular biology. Between 1988 and 1992, Watson was associated with the National Institute of Health, helping to establish the Human Genome Project. Watson has written many science books, including the textbook The Molecular Biology of the Gene (1965) and his bestselling book The Double Helix (1968) about the DNA structure discovery.
From 1968 he served as director of Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory (CSHL) on Long Island, New York greatly expanding its level of funding and research. At CSHL, he shifted his research emphasis to the study of cancer. In 1994, he took up the position of president and served for 10 years. He was appointed chancellor of CSHL, serving until 2007.

This unique event will be accompanied by an Irish premier screening of award-winning docu-drama ‘The Race for the Double Helix’ featuring Jeff Goldblum, Tim Piggot-Smith and Juliet Stephenson, originally produced for the BBC science series Horizon in 1987.

For more information visit https://www.ucdimaginescience.ie/programme/