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Dorothy Hodgkins
- Authors
- Name
- Emily Gong
When thinking of famous female scientists who revolutionized the world and were well ahead of their time, it is usually Marie Curie that rings a bell, she was known for her discovery of the 2 elements, polonium and radium. Of course, their contributions left phenomenal impacts on the world today, but you probably never heard of an equally incredibly accomplished scientist. She discovered the molecular structure of penicillin (1946) and insulin (1956), which led to the modern-day treatment of countless bacterial infections as well as diabetes. Her name was Dorothy Hodgkins, and she was one of the most overlooked scientists of all time who completely transformed the biomedical, chemical, and pharmaceutical landscape that we now know today.
Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkins was a British chemist and crystallographer born on May 12th, 1910 in Cairo, Egypt. Her father John Winter Crawfoot worked at the Egyptian Education Service as a civil servant in the Department of Education, and her mother, Grace Mary Crowfoot, was a skilled archaeologist botanist. Both her parents were interested in archaeological excavations, which captivated her at a young age. Growing up, she had an amazing gift for recognizing patterns and symmetries in everyday life, which would prove to be useful in her career later on.
During WWI, she and her two sisters moved to England where she was left the head of the house. She developed a passion for chemistry as her school grew crystals in order to analyze the structure of molecules. In primary school she was “captured for life by chemistry and by crystals.” In college, she pursued her passion for chemistry at Oxford University and focused on the growing field of X-ray crystallography. She made significant contributions in the field, which allowed scientists to visualize where the atoms are located in 3-D molecules by analyzing the diffraction patterns. By measuring the angles and intensities of the diffracted light, Dorothy could produce clear 3D images of the density of electrons within the crystal.
Not only that, but she also paved the way for countless other women in a field that was dominated by men. She often did not play by the rules of the system, which resulted in creating great changes for the future generations. For example, she was the first woman in Oxford University to be given maternity leave, and even before that she refused to step down from her fellowship after her marriage, which was unprecedented at the time.
At age 28, after delivering her first child, Hodgkins developed an infection that triggered rheumatoid arthritis. This caused her to have distorted hands and feet. She recalled that she had “had great difficulty and pain in getting up and dressing,” but she did not let this hold her back from her work.
In 1964, she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work in crystallography. To this day, she still remains the only woman in Britain to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the third woman in the world to accomplish this feat. Using X-ray crystallography, she determined the structures of penicillin, insulin, and vitamin B12, which was considered a “crowning triumph” in modern-day medicine. All of the problems that Hodgkins researched and worked on proved to be invaluable to the understanding of health and disease. In the present day, a lot of the medications created by pharmacies and administered by doctors rely on the structures that Dorothy had determined.
In conclusion, Dorothy Hodgkins was one of the greatest scientists of her time but unfortunately is not remembered as she should be. Her impact on medicine is priceless and has changed the world. As a person, she was kind-hearted, determined, mentally firm, and open-minded during her lifetime. As a scientist, she was beyond her time and revolutionized the medical field to be as we know it today.
Works Cited:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PraybTdD_9I
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1964/hodgkin/biographical/