Science · 1910–1994
Born: 12 May 1910 · Died: 29 July 1994 · Age at death: 84
Dorothy Hodgkin died aged 84. She was born on 12 May 1910 and died on 29 July 1994.
Chemist who won the Nobel Prize for mapping molecular structures
Did you know?She taught chemistry to Margaret Thatcher at Oxford University years before her student became the British Prime Minister.
Dorothy Hodgkin used X-rays to see the shapes of molecules. Her calculations took years of patient work by hand and with early computers. Penicillin, vitamin B12 and insulin all gave up their secrets to her. Those discoveries helped doctors make and use life-saving medicines. She did all this while raising three children and living with severe rheumatoid arthritis. She also campaigned for peace and scientific cooperation. Her student Margaret Thatcher kept her portrait in Downing Street.
Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was an English chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential for structural biology.
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Profile
British chemist, born 1910
Dorothy Hodgkin was born in Cairo on 12 May 1910.
She won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964.
She found the structures of penicillin and vitamin B12.
She solved the structure of insulin in 1969.
Career highlights
Did you know?She is still the only British woman to win a science Nobel Prize.
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