Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin
Personal Information
Born: 1910
Died: 1994
Country of Birth: Egypt
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: White
Education
Somerville College Oxford BA Chemistry 1932; University of Cambridge PhD Chemistry of Sterols 1937
""I believe in perfecting the world and trying to do everything to improve things, but not because I know what’s to come of it." (nobelprize.org); “How to abolish arms and achieve a peaceful world is necessarily our first objective,” she wrote in 1981. (nobelprize.org); "
— Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin
Professional Life
Field of Study: Biochemistry; x-ray crystallography
Institution/Corporation: None
Degrees & Memberships: Honorary Degree: University of Bath (1978); Member: EMBO (1970), Fellow Royal Society (1947), International Union of Crystallography, Pugwash Conference, Foreign Member American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1958), Iota Sigma Pi National Honorary Member (1966), Foreign Member USSR Academy of Sciences, Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences Foreign Member (1956)
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; 1956 Royal Medal; 1965 Order of Merit; 1976 Copley Medal; 1981 Dalton Medal; 1982 Lomonosov Gold Medal; 1987 Lenin Peace Prize; 1983 Austrian Decoration for Science & Art
Achievements: advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential for structural biology; 1945 confirmed the structure of penicillin; 1956 mapped the structure of vitamin B-12; 1969 elucidated the structure of insulin; 3-D mapped molecules; founding member of the Union of Crystallography
was banned from entering the US 1953-90 due to her left-wing views & associations with members of the Communist Party (including her husband) & required authorization from the CIA to enter the US
both parents worked in North Africa & the Middle East & were involved in archaeology
until she was 4 she lived with them in Cairo Egypt during winters & in England during the summer
sent to live with maternal grandparents 1914 to attend school & only saw her parents when they returned to England
at age 10 became very interested by crystals & by 13 was studying pebbles found in rivers near their homes & analyses them with a portable mineral analysis kit given to her by a family friend
1921 was 1 of 2 girls allowed to study chemistry at sir John Leman grammar School in Beccles England
1928 joined her parents at a dig in what is present-day Jordan & spent a year documenting the patterns of mosaics from several churches dating to the 5th & 6th centuries & conducting chemical analysis of glass tesserae tiles at the site, her drawings from that period are achieved at Yale University
Margaret thatcher was a student of hers & hung a portrait of Hodgkin in her office when she was Prime Minister
1936-1977 was the 1st fellow & tutor of chemistry at somerville College at Cambridge
1934 was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis that over time created deformities in her hands & feet, causing great pain & difficulty using her lab equipment to the point where she had to design & install special levers so she could use the machines
in her later years spent a great deal of time in wheelchairs but remained active in her lab until retiring
was known as dorothy Crowfoot until 1949, 12 years after she married
1982 an asteroid was named after her
1996 honored by a stamp issued by the British government
2010 honored on a stamp issued by the royal society & they also award a Fellowship in her name
Buildings & a school in England are named after her & plaques are erected at various places she lived & worked to honor her
it took her 4 years to map penicillin's 17 atoms, 8 years for the 181 atoms of vitamin B-12 & 34 years for the 788 atoms of insulin, she considered the last to be her crowning achievement
was a lifelong advocate for world peace after the death of 4 maternal uncles in WW1, campaigning against nuclear weapons & the Vietnam war
in the headlines of UK papers announcing her Nobel Prize she was referred to as "a mother of three" & a housewife noting she was involved in an "unhousewifely" career
retired from the public in 1988
is the 1st & only British woman recipient of a Nobel Prize in science