William Astbury

William Astbury FRS
Born	William Thomas Astbury (1898-02-25)25 February 1898 Longton, England
Died	4 June 1961(1961-06-04) (aged 63) Leeds, England
Citizenship	British
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Known for	Beta sheet Fiber diffraction X-ray diffraction of DNA
Awards	Actonian Prize (1935) Croonian Medal (1945)
Scientific career
Fields	Physics, Molecular biology
Institutions	University College London Royal Institution University of Leeds
Doctoral advisor	William Henry Bragg[1]

William Thomas Astbury FRS (25 February 1898 – 4 June 1961) was an English physicist and molecular biologist who made pioneering X-ray diffraction studies of biological molecules.^[1] His work on keratin provided the foundation for Linus Pauling's discovery of the alpha helix. He also studied the structure for DNA in 1937 and made the first step in the elucidation of its structure.