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Science · Chemistry

Dorothy Hodgkin

1910–1994 · British

X-ray crystallography; structural biochemistry

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was a British chemist who used X-ray crystallography to determine the structures of penicillin, vitamin B12 and insulin. She won the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and remains the only British woman to have won a Nobel Prize in the sciences. Based at Somerville College, Oxford, she also received the Order of Merit and was a campaigner for peace.

How to spot them

  • ▸Structures of penicillin (1945), vitamin B12 (1950s) and insulin (1969)
  • ▸Only British woman to win a science Nobel: Chemistry, 1964
  • ▸Order of Merit, 1965, the first woman since Florence Nightingale
  • ▸Somerville College, Oxford; tutor of the young Margaret Thatcher
  • ▸Worked with J. D. Bernal in Cambridge; suffered rheumatoid arthritis

Key discoveries & works

Structure of penicillin (1945)

Confirmed the beta-lactam ring, vital for making semi-synthetic penicillins

Structure of vitamin B12 (1955–1956)

The largest molecule then solved; a key reason for her Nobel Prize

Structure of insulin (1969)

Solved 35 years after she took her first X-ray photograph of insulin crystals in 1934

First X-ray diffraction photograph of a protein crystal (pepsin) (1934)

Taken with J. D. Bernal at Cambridge

Key ideas

  • Pioneered the use of X-ray crystallography, and early computers, to solve the structures of complex biological molecules
  • Showed that exact molecular structure could explain how medicines and hormones work

Quick-fire facts

  • •Born Dorothy Crowfoot in Cairo, Egypt, where her father worked in education and archaeology
  • •Won the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for determining the structures of important biochemical substances by X-ray techniques
  • •Awarded the Order of Merit in 1965, the second woman after Florence Nightingale to receive it
  • •First woman to receive the Royal Society's Copley Medal (1976)
  • •Taught chemistry to Margaret Thatcher at Somerville College, Oxford
  • •A newspaper report of her Nobel was famously headlined along the lines of 'Oxford housewife wins Nobel'
  • •Chancellor of the University of Bristol (1970–1988) and president of the Pugwash Conferences
  • •Awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1987

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources