Which college did Rosalind Franklin move to in 1953?

Rosalind Franklin moved to Birkbeck College in 1953.

Franklin left King’s College London in mid-March 1953 and joined Birkbeck College, where she worked under crystallographer John Desmond Bernal. The move followed tensions over research arrangements and working relationships at King’s, although the transfer had been planned for some time rather than being a sudden departure.

At Birkbeck, Franklin led her own research group and shifted much of her attention from DNA to viruses. Her team investigated the molecular structure of tobacco mosaic virus and later worked on poliovirus. The move therefore began a major second phase of her scientific career, not a retreat from important research.

The timing is often confused because 1953 was also the year Watson and Crick completed their DNA model. Franklin’s DNA results remained crucial to that story, but her later Birkbeck work was a distinct research programme. Birkbeck is now part of the University of London.