Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin

On May 12th, 1910, Grace Mary Crowfoot and John Winter Crowfoot gave birth to a baby girl, Dorothy Crowfoot in Cairo. At age ten, Dorothy found an interest in crystals and chemistry that a family friend, Dr. A.F. Joseph, encouraged by providing chemicals for her.

At Sir John Leman, where Dorothy attended school, she and one other girl were allowed to join the boys when they studied chemistry. With such an interest in this subject, Dorothy decided to study chemistry at college.

From 1928 to 1932 she attended Oxford and Somerville College. In college, she took special crystallography classes. Influenced by her tutor, F.M. Brewer, she decided to study X-ray crystallography. “During this study, she crystallized a substance, shot x-rays at the crystal, and then studied the ways X-rays were diffracted off the planes of the crystal’s structure.”(Chemical Heritage Foundation) At this time, x-ray crystallography is new, with a lot of room for new discoveries.

In 1934, Dorothy, in need of x-ray equipment, began to save money. The Rockefeller and Nuffield Foundations helped her with research. Dorothy gathered some research students to help her with her studies of what she thought were “biologically interesting molecules”. One of these studies involved insulin, which began with a small crystalline insulin sample. At this time, X-ray crystallography was not advanced far enough to deal with the molecule of insulin. But 35 years later, the insulin structure was finally understood. Dorothy continued to be involved with insulin research by traveling to other laboratories for studies and teaching the significance of insulin for diabetes.

Miss Dorothy Crowfoot became Mrs. Hodgkin when she married Thomas Hodgkin in 1937. Thomas was from a line of historians, and she also found an interest in it, especially in Africa’s politics. Dorothy and Thomas Hodgkin had three kids, and later 3 grandchildren. The eldest son became a mathematician. Their daughter, following her line of historians, became a history teacher in Zambia. Their youngest son went on to study agriculture.

“She also worked out the structure of vitamin B12, which from her analysis, proved to be four times the size of penicillin. In 1956, she produced a three-dimensional analysis of vitamin B12, the first scientist to determine the chemical structure of any substance solely by X-ray analysis, and for this, considered a pioneering use of computers for biochemical work.” (Tel Asiado) Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1964 for her research on the vitamin B-12 and the determination that she used. She was the 3rd female to ever win the Nobel Prize.

“In the seventies and eighties, Hodgkin received many honors. In 1970, Bristol University elected her as their Chancellor. She became a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1972. For 6 years (’72-’78) Dorothy was the President of the International Union of Crystallography. In 1976, she received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society and Became a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Dorothy Hodgkin retired in 1977, the same year that she became president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. And in 1982, she received the Lomonosov Gold Medal. In 1998, Hodgkin was awarded the Longstaff Medal.” (Linda Juliana Cohen)

On July 29th, 1994, Dorothy passed away from a stroke in her England home.

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin made advancement in our society. She put a great effort into chemistry which resulted in helpful advice and facts towards health (penicillin, insulin). She also contributed to world peace and made a contribution to women by becoming the 3rd woman to receive a Nobel Prize.

If I could ask Dorothy one question, it would be: Where do you find your determination, especially your determination in Chemistry? I find it very difficult to be determined at something especially for such a long period of time. It also becomes very difficult when there are so many unanswered questions in a subject. Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin is a real role model to look up to.