Vitamin B12 coenzyme

1955

Hodgkin. Nature 176, 325 (1955), Proc. Roy. Soc. A303, 45 (1968)

The first X-ray diffraction patterns of proteins

In 1934 J. D. Bernal obtained the first X-ray diffraction photographs of a protein -- pepsin.

These were obtained by immersing the crystals in their mother liquor.

Dorothy helped with this experiment.

Insulin structureThe structure of insulin was a research project that began in 1934 when Dorothy was offered a small sample of crystalline insulin by Sir Robert Robinson.

A year later she obtained diffraction patterns of insulin. These were too complicated for structural analysis at that time. It was 1969 before she solved the structure. She compared this structure with the results of a structure determination in China.

J. D. Bernal, John Kendrew, Dorothy Hodgkin, David Phillips(Royal Institution of Great Britain).

Guy Dodson and Dorothy Hodgkin

(Eleanor Dodson)

Gift from Dorothy toHelen Megaw

Insulin

Dorothy on her election to the Royal Society in 1947

(Picture by the Oxford Mail)

Honors

In 1947 she received a Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1947.

In 1964 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work in crystallography.

In 1965 she was appointed to the Order of Merit, filling the vacancy left by Winston Churchill.

She was Chancellor of Bristol University from 1970 to 1988.

She was President of the International Union of Crystallography from 1972 to 1975.

In 1976 she received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society.

She was President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 1988-1978.

Dorothy and Thomas at the Nobel Prize Celebrations

(Thanks to Hodgkin family)

20p value British postage stamp issued on 6 August 1996

J. D. DUNITZ ON DOROTHY'S SPECIAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE

Dorothy's work was not done in isolation BUT owed much to the example and inspiration set by her contemporaries (Bernal, Pauling, Perutz, Robertson, and many others).

Dorothy had an unerring instinct for sensing the most significant structural problems in this field.

She had the audacity to attack these problems when they seemed well-nigh insoluble.

She had the perseverance to struggle onward where others would have given up.

She had the skill and imagination to solve these problems once the pieces of the puzzle began to take shape.

In “Structural Studies on Molecules of Biological Interest.” Edited by Guy Dodson, Jenny P. Glusker and David Sayre. Clarendon Press: Oxford 1981, page 59.