Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Dorothy Hodgkin (main image)© National Portrait Gallery

 Image © National Portrait Gallery 

Education

Read for a degree in Chemistry at Somerville, University of Oxford, before completing her doctorate at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, in 1928.

Research area

Biochemistry, crystallography

Career

  • After her doctoral studies at Cambridge, Hodgkin returned to work as a Research Fellow at Somerville.
  • She pioneered the use of protein crystallography to map the structures of penicillin, insulin, and vitamin B12, and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964. She remains Britain’s only female Nobel Prize winner in science.
  • Hodgkin was elected to the Royal Society in 1947, two years after the first woman had been elected.
  • She was elected Chancellor of the University of Bristol in 1970.

Further resources