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On 6 May we celebrated the life and work of Dorothy Hodgkin by awarding a National Chemical Landmark blue plaque to the University of Oxford’s Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory.

Looking at biochemical structures

Hodgkin remains Britain’s only female scientist to receive a Nobel Prize. She received the accolade “for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances”. Amongst her most significant discoveries were the confirmation of the three-dimensional structures of penicillin, vitamin B12 and insulin.

Chief executive Robert Parker, spoke at the presentation, saying that he was “delighted to be here again, to honour and celebrate the work of Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin.

“It has been 50 years since she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and I am delighted to mark the occasion by awarding a new plaque, one that will inspire those that read its message and demonstrate the valuable work that takes place here at the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory in Oxford.”

Awards symposium marks the occasion

The event formed part of the year-long celebration of the International Year of Crystallography in 2014. We also held an award symposium to mark the presentation of the plaque to the University of Oxford.

Professors Susan Lea, Paul Raithby and Andrew Goodwin discussed their work in the field of crystallography, and the audience had a chance to hear about how the crystallography field has changed in the half century since Hodgkin’s Nobel Prize in 1964. Hodgkin’s biographer Georgina Ferry, who has also written a play about her life, Hidden Glory, outlined Dorothy Hodgkin’s journey to the Nobel Prize.