Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins CBE FRS ( 15 December 1916 â `` 5 October 2004 ) was a New Zealand-born English physicist and molecular biologist . Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins CBE FRS ( 15 December 1916 â `` 5 October 2004 ) was a New Zealand-born English physicist and molecular biologist , and Nobel Laureate whose research contributed to the scientific understanding of phosphorescence , isotope separation , optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction , and to the development of radar .