Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot

▪ 1995

      British chemist (b. May 12, 1910, Cairo, Egypt—d. July 29, 1994, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, England), won the 1964 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for her work in determining the atomic structure of vitamin B₁₂ and other important biochemical compounds. Hodgkin studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford (B.A., 1931; B.Sc., 1932), and the University of Cambridge (Ph.D., 1937), but most of her research was in X-ray crystallography, which was more closely linked to physics than to chemistry. She returned to Somerville College as a tutor in 1935; she became a fellow the following year and remained there until 1977. Hodgkin then became fellow by special election (1977-82) at Oxford's Wolfson College. She remained active as chancellor (1970-88) and honorary fellow (from 1988) at the University of Bristol. In the 1930s and early '40s, Hodgkin began work on an X-ray analysis of the atomic structure of penicillin and of insulin (though it took nearly 35 years to finally accomplish the latter). From 1948 to 1956 she concentrated her crystallographic research on vitamin B₁₂, an enormously complex nonprotein compound crucial to the treatment of pernicious anemia. She also did research into other compounds, including cholesterol and vitamin D. Hodgkin was a founder (1957) of the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs, Wolfson research professor of the Royal Society (1960-77), a member of the Order of Merit (1965), and the winner of numerous international awards.

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