Prof James Watson is selling the Nobel Prize medal he won for his role in the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Christie's auction house says it is the first to be sold by a living Nobel laureate and the gold medal could fetch as much as $3.5 million (£2.2 million) at its sale on December 4.
Prof Watson made the discovery in 1953 at Cambridge University with Francis Crick. They were jointly awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Maurice Wilkins, from King's College London, for identifying the elegant double helix in work that laid the basis for modern molecular biology.
"All we could say when we got it: It's so beautiful!" he said of the discovery in an interview with CNN last year.
Later he became a well-known populariser of science, giving talks and writing books designed to reach a new audience.
His best-selling memoir from 1968, The Double Helix, is credited with changing the public perception of scientists, from staid figures ensconced in laboratories to quick-thinking, ambitious and oftentimes competitive individuals in a race to discover the mysteries of life.
Prof Watson said part of the proceeds would go to the institutions where he studied and worked.
"I look forward to making further philanthropic gifts to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the University of Chicago, and Clare College Cambridge, so I can continue to do my part in keeping the academic world an environment where great ideas and decency prevail," he said.
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