Watson's passing is confirmed by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), with which Watson was affiliated for much of his career and where he led research work until 2007.
However, in 2019, Watson was stripped of all honorary titles and awards from the CSHL after he refused to back down from previous statements in a television documentary that there is a connection between intelligence and skin color and that people in Africa are less intelligent. Twelve years earlier, he was stripped of his vice-chancellor title at the university, when he first made the controversial statements.
James Watson was appointed an honorary doctor of medicine in memory of Carl von Linné at Uppsala University in 2007.
In 2014, James Watson sold his Nobel Medal along with his acceptance speech and notes for the 1962 Nobel Lecture at Christie's auction house in New York for $4,757,000, equivalent to 45 million Swedish kronor.
He donated part of the money to research projects at the universities and institutions where he had worked during his career.
