Portrait of Dorothy Hodgkin

Birthday profile

Dorothy Hodgkin

Dorothy Hodgkin, English biochemist, crystallographer, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1994)

Born
May 12, 1910
Died
July 29, 1994
Zodiac sign
Taurus
Birth year
1910

About Dorothy Hodgkin

Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was an English chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential for structural biology. She received the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and is the only British woman scientist to have been awarded a Nobel Prize. Among her most influential discoveries are the confirmation of the structure of penicillin as previously surmised by Edward Abraham and Ernst Boris Chain; and mapping the structure of vitamin B12, for which in 1964 she became the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Hodgkin also elucidated the structure of insulin in 1969 after 35 years of work. Hodgkin used the name "Dorothy Crowfoot" until twelve years after marrying Thomas Lionel Hodgkin, when she began using "Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin". Hodgkin is referred to as "Dorothy Hodgkin" by the Royal Society (when referring to its sponsorship of the Dorothy Hodgkin fellowship), and by Somerville College. The National Archives of the United Kingdom refer to her as "Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin". The case of her Nobel prize is inscribed 'Crowfoot Hodgkin'. == Early life == Dorothy Mary Crowfoot was born in Cairo, Egypt, the oldest of the four daughters whose parents worked in North Africa and the middle East in the colonial administration and later as archaeologists. Dorothy came from a distinguished family of archaeologists.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The world when Dorothy Hodgkin was born

Dorothy Hodgkin was born in 1910. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1910

  • Best-selling book"The Rosary" – Florence L. Barclay

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentJack Johnson defends heavyweight title, sparking nationwide debate
  • Top headlineBoy Scouts of America founded
  • Technology milestoneFirst neon lighting demonstrated in Paris
  • World population~1.7B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWilliam Howard Taft
  • U.S. population92.2M

1910 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Dorothy Hodgkin's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19102026
Average home$3,395$435,000
Average income$574$67,500
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population92.2M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.