Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (May 12, 1910-July 29, 1994)
Alan D. Rogol MD, Ph.D
Dorothy Hodgkin was a Noble Prize (Chemistry) winning British scientist who used a mass of x-ray spectra, extensive calculations and astute analysis to determine complex molecular crystal structures. Her long foray into the structure of proteins began before she published her studies of crystallized insulin (Proc Roy Soc A 1938; 164:580) (under Crowfoot) to the eventual solution of its 3-dimentional structure in 1966 (J Mol Biol 1966; 16:212). It could then be determined how the peptide chains fit together and the molecules within crystals with Zn atoms leading to hexamers. One could then imagine property-altering analogs. Along the way she was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1964 having published the crystal structures of penicillin (1946) and vitamin B-12 (1956).