Dorothy Hodgkin

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was a British chemist who used X-ray crystallography to determine the structures of penicillin, vitamin B12, and insulin.

Penicillin: A group of beta-lactam antibiotics first developed for clinical use in the 1940s. Hodgkin’s 1945 X-ray analysis established penicillin’s complex molecular structure.
X-ray crystallography: A method for determining crystal structures by analyzing how crystals diffract X-rays. It was Hodgkin’s central tool for resolving molecular structures.
John Desmond Bernal: An Irish-born crystallographer whose research advanced X-ray studies of biological molecules. Bernal supervised Hodgkin’s doctoral research and introduced her to crystallography.
Somerville College: A constituent college of the University of Oxford, founded in 1879 as a women’s college. Hodgkin studied chemistry there and later became its first female principal.
Structural biology: The study of biological molecules’ structures and how those structures relate to function. Hodgkin’s molecular determinations helped establish structural biology as a research discipline.
Vitamin B12: A cobalt-containing vitamin required for blood-cell formation and nervous-system function. Hodgkin solved its intricate structure in 1956, revealing its cobalt-centered architecture.
X-ray diffraction: The scattering of X-rays by regularly arranged atoms in a material. Diffraction patterns from crystals supplied the measurements Hodgkin interpreted.
Max Perutz: An Austrian-born British molecular biologist who used X-ray crystallography to study hemoglobin. Perutz and Hodgkin were leading figures in the development of protein crystallography.
University of Cambridge: A public research university in Cambridge, England, founded in 1209. Hodgkin conducted doctoral research at Cambridge under J. D. Bernal.
Women in science: The history and participation of women in scientific research and institutions. Her scientific distinction and institutional leadership challenged barriers facing women in British science.

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