By the time the initial period of CoRE funding ended in 2007, the Centre had succeeded in its goals of establishing a multidisciplinary platform that would serve as a springboard for new initiatives in biotechnology and generating a vigorous and successful research programme.
Our History
The Maurice Wilkins Centre is one of ten New Zealand Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs) established by the Government to underpin world-class research efforts in New Zealand.
The Maurice Wilkins Centre began in 2002 as the Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery. Since then, the Centre has strategically expanded its network to include most of the biomedical expertise in its field from across New Zealand.
The Centre was established by bringing together five high-performing research groups at the University of Auckland in biology, chemistry, engineering, and medicine, as well as collaborating with researchers nationwide.
In 2006, the Centre was re-launched under its new name, which honours pioneering New Zealand-born physicist Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins.
The Maurice Wilkins Centre subsequently won further funding in 2008, 2014 and 2021.
About Nobel Laureate Maurice Wilkins
Maurice Wilkins was born in Pongaroa, 60km east of Pahiatua in the northern Wairarapa, on 15 December 1916. At the age of six, he moved with his family to England and was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham.
He studied physics at St John's College, Cambridge, taking his degree in 1938.
During the Second World War, Maurice investigated problems related to the separation of uranium isotopes as part of the Manhattan Project.
However, after the war, he moved to King's College, where he began spectroscopic studies on nucleic acids, which eventually led to the use of X-ray crystallography to define the Watson-Crick model of DNA.
For this work, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962, along with James Watson and Francis Crick.
Maurice married Patricia Ann Chidgey in 1959, and they had two sons and two daughters. After Maurice’s death in October 2004, his family generously agreed to continue his memory by allowing us to rename The Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery, The Maurice Wilkins Centre.
Maurice’s name was chosen not just to honour an accomplished scientist, but to send a message to all New Zealanders that coming from humble beginnings doesn’t preclude you from making one of the greatest scientific discoveries of humankind.
We are extremely proud of our association with the name and family of Maurice Wilkins.