Chemistry 113 Lab Monday 3:15
Professor Sara Bowden
4-14-14
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was born on May 12, 1910 in Cairo, Egypt and died on July 29, 1994 in Shipston-on-Stour, England. Her parents were the archaeologist, John Winter Crowfoot, who was also a classical scholar, and his wife, her mother, was Grace Mary Crowfoot Hood. Up until the age of four, she and her parents lived in Egypt in the expatriate community. Then, they moved back to England. During World War I, she lived with relatives. She, in 1921, attended the Grammar School of Sir John Leman. She only really saw her parents during one extended visit and occasionally during summer breaks. In other words, she never really saw her parents; she did not let it get to her though. Actually, it inspired her to work even harder in not only school, but also in life and everything else she ever did. Her goal was to make a difference in the world and to be successful; I think she accomplished both of these things. Even at a young age, she loved science, chemistry in particular, and at age eighteen, she started to attend Oxford University. Later, she studied under John Desmond Bernal at the University of Cambridge. Here, she learned x-ray crystallography’s potential which is used for determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal By measuring the intensities and angles of the diffracted beams, a crystallographer, which examines the arrangement of atoms in solids, can produce, with in the crystal, a three dimensional picture of the electrons’ density. First, she started with pepsin, and then she went on to study penicillin, insulin, and vitamin B12 In 1933, she moved back to the University of Oxford after being awarded a fellowship. She was offered, in 1934, by Robert Robinson, crystalline insulin, a small sample. It really caught her imagination because of its wide range of effects in the body and how intricate it actually is. Unfortunately, x-ray