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Dorothy Hodgkin
1910–1994 · Chemist
A British chemist who used X-ray crystallography to reveal the structures of penicillin, vitamin B12 and insulin, winning the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
“I was captured for life by chemistry and by crystals.”
Why is this scientist famous?
Used X-ray crystallography to reveal the 3D structures of penicillin, vitamin B12, and insulin; won the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Dorothy's story
A Gifted Girl from Cairo
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was born in 1910 in Cairo, Egypt, where her father was an archaeologist and her mother was a botanist who illustrated desert plants. The family travelled frequently between Egypt and England, and Dorothy and her sisters were often left with relatives in England while their parents worked abroad. At the age of ten, she became fascinated by crystals after watching a friend's mother grow them in a home laboratory. Her mother, who had studied botany at university, encouraged her interest in science. At school in England, Hodgkin was one of only two girls permitted to study chemistry. She went on to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, graduating with first-class honours in 1932.
Seeing Molecules with X-Rays
After Oxford, Hodgkin moved to Cambridge to study with J. D. Bernal, a brilliant and unconventional physicist who was pioneering a new technique called X-ray crystallography. The idea was extraordinary: if you fire a beam of X-rays at a crystal, the rays scatter in a pattern that reveals the arrangement of atoms inside it. By analysing the pattern of spots on a photographic plate, you can work out the three-dimensional shape of the molecule. But the mathematics was fiendishly complex, and the calculations took weeks or months by hand. Hodgkin had a gift for it. She could look at a pattern of spots and almost intuit the shape it represented. She worked on the structures of proteins and minerals, and in 1934 she returned to Oxford to set up her own laboratory. She would spend the rest of her career there, using X-ray crystallography to solve some of the most important molecular puzzles of the twentieth century.
Penicillin, B12, and Insulin
During the Second World War, Hodgkin and her collaborators used X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of penicillin. By 1945 their work had settled a major argument about the antibiotic's molecular structure; large-scale penicillin production was already under way, but knowing the structure later helped chemists understand and modify related antibiotics. In the mid-1950s Hodgkin's team solved the far more complex structure of vitamin B12 using extensive calculations and early computers. Her X-ray studies of important biochemical substances brought her the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She had also begun studying insulin in the 1930s, and in 1969 Hodgkin and her team established its structure after more than three decades of work.
Teacher, Mentor, and Campaigner
Hodgkin was as beloved as a teacher as she was respected as a scientist. Her students at Oxford included Margaret Roberts, who later became Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — Thatcher kept a portrait of Hodgkin in Downing Street, the only scientist given that honour. Hodgkin was gentle, unassuming, and deeply committed to peace. She served as president of the Pugwash Conferences, an organisation of scientists working to prevent nuclear war, and she campaigned for nuclear disarmament and for better relations between East and West during the Cold War. She was also a passionate advocate for scientists in developing countries and mentored crystallographers from India, China, and Africa. She suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for most of her adult life, which deformed her hands and made laboratory work increasingly painful — yet she continued to work and travel well into her seventies. She died in 1994, aged eighty-four, at her home in Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire. She remains one of the most admired British scientists of the twentieth century — a woman who saw the shapes of molecules that saved millions of lives, and who used her fame to fight for a more peaceful world.
Legacy of a Quiet Revolutionary
Hodgkin's work helped establish X-ray crystallography as a powerful way to understand complex biological molecules. Her studies of penicillin, vitamin B12 and insulin influenced later research in structural biology, chemistry and medicine. She was awarded the Royal Medal in 1956, the Order of Merit in 1965, the Copley Medal in 1976, and the Lenin Peace Prize in 1987. A portrait of her appeared on a British postage stamp. Oxford's Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Building and the Royal Society's Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship bear her name. She proved that X-ray crystallography could solve the most complex molecules in biology, and she opened the door to the era of molecular medicine — all while defying the expectations placed on women in science.
What did they discover?
Structure of Penicillin
Hodgkin and collaborators determined penicillin's molecular structure in the mid-1940s, settling a major chemical question and supporting later work on antibiotic chemistry.
Structure of Vitamin B12
Hodgkin and her team determined the complex structure of vitamin B12 in the mid-1950s. Her structural work on important biochemical substances brought her the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Structure of Insulin
In 1969 Hodgkin and her team established insulin's three-dimensional structure after more than three decades of research, deepening understanding of this medically important hormone.
Pioneering X-ray Crystallography Methods
Hodgkin advanced the techniques of X-ray crystallography to solve increasingly complex biological molecules, opening the field of structural biology and paving the way for modern molecular medicine.
Amazing facts
Hodgkin was the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, after Marie Curie and Irène Joliot-Curie.
She suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis for most of her adult life, which deformed her hands but never stopped her laboratory work.
One of her Oxford students was Margaret Thatcher, who kept a portrait of Hodgkin in 10 Downing Street.
She worked on insulin for more than three decades before she and her team established its structure in 1969.
She served as president of the Pugwash Conferences, an organisation of scientists working to prevent nuclear war.
She mentored crystallographers from India, China, and Africa, and was a passionate advocate for science in developing countries.
She received the Order of Merit in 1965, one of Britain's highest honours.
She was the first woman to receive the Copley Medal, the Royal Society's oldest and most prestigious award, in 1976.
A British postage stamp bearing her portrait was issued in 1996.
She was known for her gentle, unassuming manner and her habit of giving credit to her students and collaborators before herself.
Timeline
Born in Cairo, Egypt, to British parents
Begins studying chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford
Graduates with first-class honours and moves to Cambridge to study X-ray crystallography with J. D. Bernal
Returns to Oxford to establish her own X-ray crystallography laboratory
Hodgkin and collaborators determine the structure of penicillin
Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
Hodgkin and her team determine the structure of vitamin B12
Awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her X-ray determinations of the structures of important biochemical substances
Appointed to the Order of Merit
Hodgkin and her team establish the structure of insulin
Becomes the first woman to receive the Copley Medal
Dies at her home in Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, aged 84
Awards & honours
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