Record

Authorised form of nameHodgkin; Dorothy Mary Crowfoot (1910 - 1994); chemist and crystallographer
Dates1910 - 1994
NationalityBritish
Place of birthGuizeh, near Cairo, Egypt, Africa
Date of birth12/05/1910
Place of deathIlmington, near Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, England
Date of death29/07/1994
Occupationchemist and crystallographer
Research fieldBiochemistry
Crystal chemistry
Structural biology
Chemical crystallography
X-ray crystallography
ActivityEducation:
Sir John Leman School, Beccles; Newnham College Cambridge; Somerville College, Oxford (1928-1932, Chemistry)
Career:
Research work on sterols, with J D Bernal (FRS 1937) at Cambridge; returned to Oxford and continued work with X-ray analysis; University Lecturer and Demonstrator (1946); University Reader in X-ray crystallography (1956); Wolfson Research Professor of the Royal Society (1960-1977); her students at Somerville College included Margaret Thatcher; Vice-President, Medical Aid Committee for Vietnam (1965), President (1971); second woman to be appointed to the Order of Merit (1965); Chancellor, Bristol University (1970-1988); President, International Union of Crystallography (1972-1975); President, Pugwash conferences on Science and World Affairs (1976-1988); President, British Association for the Advancement of Science (1977-1978); died following a stroke.
Medals and prizes:
Nobel Prize (Chemistry) 1964
Dalton Medal 1976
Lomonosov Gold Medal 1982
Honours:
OM 1965
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election20/03/1947
Age at election36
ProposerKathleen Lonsdale
William Hume-Rothery
William Lawrence Bragg
Francis Simon
Howard Walter Florey
John Monteath Robertson
William Thomas Astbury
Ian Morris Heilbron
John Desmnd Bernal
Royal Society activityMedals and prizes:
Royal Medal 1956; Copley Medal 1976
Lectures:
Tercentenary 1960; Bakerian 1972
RelationshipsParents: John Winter Crowfoot (1873–1958), inspector with the ministry of public instruction for Egypt and the Sudan, later director of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, and Grace Mary (Molly) Hood (1877–1957), authority on ancient textiles.
Spouse: (1937) Thomas Lionel Hodgkin (died 1982).
Children: Luke Howard (born 1938), Prudence Elizabeth (born 1943), John Robin Tobias (born 1946).
Published worksRCN 44501
RCN 13840
RCN 44502
RCN R79761
RCN 10147
RCN 14635
General contextDetermined the structure of insulin, establishing the general form and the leading inter-atomic distances in crystalline insulin.
Studied sterols and proteins, advancing knowledge on the stereo-chemical structure of the sterol skeleton, and in proteins she carried out work on virus structures.
Demonstrated it is possible to derive the complete structure of organic substances of unknown chemical composition by X-ray methods alone.
Mapped the structure of cobalamin (vitamin B12).
Confirmed the structure of penicillin, previously surmised by Edward Abraham and Ernst Boris Chain.
Became the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
A privately commissioned portrait of Dorothy Hodgkin, by Bryan Organ, became part of the collection of the Royal Society in 1982, making it the first portrait of a woman to be included in the Society's collection.
The Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship is awarded by the Royal Society "for outstanding scientists at an early stage of their research career who require a flexible working pattern due to personal circumstances, such as parenting or caring responsibilities or health-related reasons."
Royal Society Obituary or MemoirClick to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices)
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Hodgkin D M C, GA AR 7132.jpg

SourcesAssocMaterial:
NCUACS 47/3/94 and 135/8/04. Papers and correspondence deposited in the Bodleian Library, Oxford
Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 2002 vol 48 pp 179-219, plate, by G Dodson FRS
References:
Sir John Cornforth, 'Portrait of Dorothy Hodgkin, OM, FRS' in NR 1982-83 vol 37 pp 1-4, plate
Joan Mason, 'The Women Fellows' Jubilee' in NR 1995 vol 49 pp 125-140
S Ramaseshan, 'Dorothy Hodgkin and the Indian Connection' in NR 1996 vol 50 pp 115-127, plate
J Corden, 'Web of Science History' project in NR 2002 vol 56 pp 383-388
D Blow and S Wallwork, 'Prehistory of the British Crystallographic Association' in NR 2004 vol 58 pp 177-186
P Harper, 'Preserving scientific archives: the work of NCUACS' in NR 2004 vol 58 pp 227-232
Royal Society codeNA8241
Archives associated with this Fellow
Reference numberTitleDate
M/261Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot
HWT/25/6Correspondence and papers regarding Chinese research workers in Britain and British visitors to ChinaAugust - December 1966
HWT/25/7Correspondence and papers regarding premature return to China (due to Cultural Revolution) of Chinese research workers in BritainJanuary - September 1967
P/0158Portrait of Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot1980
IM/GA/WS/2717Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfootnd
IM/002159Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary CrowfootNovember 2003
IM/007145Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary CrowfootJuly 1984
P/0226Portrait of Hodgkin, Dorothy Crowfoot2005
RR/71/232Referee's report by Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, on a paper 'An X-ray study of horse methaemoglobin. II' by Max Ferdinand Perutz1948
RR/61/101Referee's report by John Desmond Bernal, on a paper 'The crystal structure of insulin. I. The investigation of air-dried insulin crystals' by Dorothy Mary Crowfoot HodgkinDecember 1937
RR/68/447Referee's report by John Monteath Robertson, on a paper 'The crystal structure of cholesteryl iodide' by C H Carlisle and Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin[1944]
RR/72/170Referee's report by Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, on a paper 'The crystal structure of horse met-myoglobin. I. General features: the arrangement of the poly-peptide chains' by John Cowdery Kendrew1949
IM/002158Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfootnd
EC/1947/13Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot: certificate of election to the Royal Society
IM/GA/AR/7132Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfootnd
IM/004389Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot2003
IM/007144Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot1965
IM/007143Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfootnd
IM/007146Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfootnd
IM/007142Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfootc 1951
RR/66/26Referee's report by William Henry Bragg, on a paper 'X-Ray crystallography and the chemistry of the steroids. Part I' by John Desmond Bernal, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin and I Fankuchen[April 1940]
RR/66/25Referee's report by Ian Morris Heilbron, on a paper 'X-Ray crystallography and the chemistry of the steroids. Part I' by John Desmond Bernal, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin and I Fankuchen15 May 1940
IM/002157Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfootnd
IM/007147Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfootc 1951
P/0152Portrait of Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot1982
AP/83/13Supporting data, regarding 'The structure of vitamin B12. VIII. The crystal structure of vitamin B12-5'-phosphate' by S W Hawkinson, C L Coulter, Marsha L Greaves and Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin[1970]
RR/65/131Letter from Archibald Vivian Hill, on an unnamed paper by Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin to the Secretary of the Royal Society31 May 1938
AP/82/16Supporting data, regarding 'The structure of vitamin B12 V. The structure of the air-dried crystals of vitamin B12' by Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, June Lindsey, R A Sparks, K N Trueblood and John Graham White[1962]
AP/82/20Supporting data, regarding 'The structure of Vitamin B12 VI. The structure of crystals of vitamin B12 grown from and immersed in water' by Clara Brink-Shoemaker, Durward William John Cruickshank, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, M. Jennifer Kamper and Diana Pilling[1964]
AP/83/18Supporting data, regarding 'The structure of vitamin B12. IX. The crystal structure of cobyric acid, factor V 1a' by K Venkatesan, D Dale, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, C E Nockolds, F H Moore and B H O’Connor[1971]
RR/75/63Referee's report by Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, on a paper 'Crystallite growth in graphitising and non-graphitising carbons' by Rosalind E Franklin12 April 1951
RR/77/143Referee's report by Dorothy Hodgkin, on a paper 'The configuration of the polypeptide chain in small peptides such as Gramicidin S' by N B Abbott and E J Ambrose26 August 1952
P/0159Drawing, hands of Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot1978
RR/79/151Referee's report by Dorothy Hodgkin, on a paper 'The crystal and molecular structure of perylene' by D M Donaldson, John Monteath Robertson and John G White16 July 1953
RR/79/150Referee's report by Dorothy Hodgkin, on a paper 'The crystal and molecular structure of ovalene. A quantitative X-ray investigation' by D M Donaldson and John Monteath Robertson16 July 1953
RR/79/230Referee's report by Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, on a paper 'The complementary structure of deoxyribonucleic acid' by Francis Harry Compton Crick and James Dewey Watson14 September 1953
RR/77/142Letter from Dorothy Hodgkin, on a paper 'The configuration of the polypeptide chain in small peptides such as Gramicidin S' by N B Abbott and E J Ambrose, to D C Martin26 August 1952
RR/75/62Letter from Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, on a paper 'Crystallite growth in graphitising and non-graphitising carbons' by Rosalind E Franklin, to D C Martin12 April 1951
ROR/5/2/6Recording of Robert Robinson and Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin1974
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