Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910 - 1994) was a British chemist who pioneered the use of X-ray crystallography to determine the three-dimensional structures of complex biological molecules. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964 for her work confirming the structures of important biochemical substances, and she remains the only British woman to have won a Nobel Prize in the sciences. [1]
Early life and education
Dorothy Mary Crowfoot was born on 12 May 1910 in Cairo, Egypt, where her father worked in the education service. She developed an early fascination with chemistry and crystals, and attended the Sir John Leman High School in Beccles, Suffolk. She went on to study chemistry at Somerville College, University of Oxford, and later carried out doctoral research at the University of Cambridge, spending time at Newnham College. [1]
Scientific career
Returning to Oxford, Hodgkin established a research programme centred on X-ray crystallography, a technique in which the diffraction of X-rays by a crystal is used to deduce the arrangement of its atoms. She applied and refined the method over several decades, tackling molecules of steadily increasing complexity at a time when such calculations had to be performed largely by hand. [2]
Major discoveries
During the 1940s Hodgkin determined the structure of penicillin, helping to explain the chemistry of the newly important antibiotic. She subsequently elucidated the structure of vitamin B12, an achievement widely regarded as one of the landmark results of structural chemistry. In 1969, after decades of effort, she succeeded in mapping the structure of insulin, the hormone central to the regulation of blood sugar. [2]
Honours and recognition
Hodgkin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and received its Copley Medal and Royal Medal. In 1964 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and in 1965 she was appointed to the Order of Merit, one of the highest honours in Britain. Her many further distinctions included the Lomonosov Gold Medal and the Lenin Peace Prize, reflecting both her scientific standing and her advocacy for peace and international scientific cooperation. [3]
Legacy
Dorothy Hodgkin died on 29 July 1994 in Ilmington, Warwickshire. She is remembered as one of the founders of the field of protein crystallography, and her methods laid groundwork for the structural biology that underpins much of modern medicine and drug design. Her career is also frequently cited as a landmark in the participation of women in the physical sciences. [1]
