Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was a British chemist who developed protein crystallography, for which she won the Nobel Prize in 1964. She revolutionized research with her advanced technique, which allowed her to determine the 3-D structures of biomolecules. Her most influential discoveries are the confirmation of the structure of penicillin and structure of vitamin B12. In 1969, after 35 years of work, she also deciphered the structure of insulin. Her work was described by her contemporaries as being as significant as “breaking the sound barrier”. But she didn’t stop at figuring out the structure of insulin, she continued research on insulin and travelled the world giving talks about its importance in diabetes. She was the third woman to win the Nobel Prize and among her numerous accolades also remains the only woman to ever receive the Copley Medal by the Royal Society.