Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
1910-1994
English Chemist and Crystallographer
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was a pioneer in the use of x-ray crystallographic methods for the determination of crystal and molecular structures and is widely regarded as the founder of protein crystallography. She both developed the x-ray crystallographic methodology and used it to solve the molecular structures of a number of complex biologically important molecules. She also served as a much-admired mentor and role model for several generations of xray crystallographers throughout the world.
Dorothy Crowfoot was born in Cairo, Egypt. Her father was an archeologist and her mother an artist. She was educated in England and received two degrees from Somerville College of Oxford University, a B.A. in 1931 and a B.Sc. in 1932. She studied chemistry at Oxford and did her first crystallographic studies as an undergraduate. In 1933, she continued her studies at Cambridge University under the direction of x-ray crystallographer John D. Bernal. During her graduate studies, she took the first xray diffraction photograph of a protein (pepsin). She was awarded her doctorate by Cambridge in 1937. In 1935, she returned to Oxford University, where she became a member of the faculty. In 1937 she married Thomas L. Hodgkin, an historian whose specialty was Africa. They subsequently became the parents of three children.
During the 1940s, she used x-ray crystallographic methods, many of which she developed herself, to determine the molecular structures of cholesterol, penicillin, and hemoglobin. X-ray crystallographic methods require numerous repetitive calculations involving very large sets of data. Today, such calculations are performed quickly with the use of computers. There were, however, no high-speed computers available at the time Dorothy Hodgkin undertook her work, and each structure determination required lengthy, tedious calculations to be done by hand. Even the determination of the structure of a relatively small molecule was a lengthy enterprise; those of the complex molecules that she chose to study each required a number of years to complete.
The dramatic success of her research led to her election as a fellow of the Royal Society in 1947, and she served as the Society's Wolfson Professor during 1960-77. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1964 for the determination of the structure of vitamin B12 by x-ray crystallographic analysis. Vitamin B12 is used to prevent and to treat pernicious anemia. In 1965, she became the second woman ever to receive the British Order of Merit; the only other woman so honored had been Florence Nightingale in 1907. Hodgkin was further honored with theposition of Chancellor at Bristol University, and she served in this role from 1970-88.
One of her greatest successes came in 1969 when she announced the successful determination of the molecular structure of insulin, a protein used in the treatment of diabetes. It had taken her a total of 34 years to complete this major work.
In addition to her scientific undertakings, Hodgkin remained actively dedicated to the cause of world peace throughout her life. In 1957, she was a founder of the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs and used every opportunity to speak or otherwise lend her support to the movement.
Hodgkin was not only a pioneer in x-ray crystallography and in the determination of the molecular structures of proteins, she was also a pioneer as a woman in the scientific research and academic establishments. Her distinguished success not only led to her own personal acceptance but made it easier for women who followed her. It is also worth noting that her accomplishments came in spite of the fact that she was crippled by rheumatoid arthritis for much of her life.
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