Oxford chemist honoured
THE ROYAL SOCIETY of Chemistry (RSC) at Oxford will honour Nobel Prize winning crystallographer, Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994) on Monday 14th May through the designation of a National Historical Chemical Landmark.
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was born in Egypt in 1910 and studied Chemistry at Somerville, receiving her first degree in 1932 during which she began her research in X-ray crystallography - the use of x-ray diffraction to determine the structure of a molecule.
During a long and distinguished career at Oxford, Hodgkin discovered the structures of the antibiotic penicillin, and vitamin B12, a treatment for pernicious anaemia, thereby augmenting the synthesis and production of these compounds. Finally she and her colleagues discovered the structure of insulin, a project she began in 1934.
During her career she developed three-dimensional views of the molecular and atomic structures of extremely complex organic compounds, each one more complicated and larger than the last. Her research allowed others to grow and expand their ideas. Two of which, Cambridge scientists John C. Kendrew and Max F. Perutz, were able to obtain clear, three-dimensional views of several proteins including haemoglobin and myoglobin.
With each new discovery, Dr. Hodgkin expanded the technology of crystallography. By choosing projects others considered impossible, she helped to establish one of the characteristic features of contemporary science: the use of molecular structure to explain biological function.
She became the sole winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964 "for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biological substances." She is the only British woman scientist to receive this honour.
The Royal Society of Chemistry's Immediate Past-President, Professor Tony Ledwith will present a plaque to be displayed on the outside of the Inorganic Chemistry laboratory.
24th May 2001