What subject was James Watson's 1947 bachelor's degree in?

James Watson’s 1947 bachelor’s degree was in zoology.

Watson earned the degree at the University of Chicago, where he studied biology before turning decisively toward genetics. His interest in living organisms was shaped partly by his childhood fascination with birds, and he initially considered becoming an ornithologist.

A common mix-up is to associate Watson’s degree with physics or chemistry because his later DNA work depended heavily on physical and chemical ideas. Watson himself shifted toward genetics after reading Erwin Schrödinger’s 1944 book What Is Life? He later completed a PhD in zoology at Indiana University in 1950 under Salvador Luria.

His undergraduate training helped lead to the partnership with Francis Crick, whose 1953 DNA model combined biological reasoning with structural and chemical evidence. Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work on nucleic-acid structure and information transfer.