Dorothy Hodgkin Crowfoot (1910-1994) was a remarkable researcher who excelled in the field of Chemistry during a challenging, competitive, and male-dominated era. She was born in Cairo on May 12, 1910, and reached the peak of her career in the mid-20th century.

Her father, John, worked in the British colonial administration of Egypt and Sudan. Her mother, Grace, was involved in archaeology and botany. Dorothy was an avid reader and showed a remarkable passion for science from an early age. With the outbreak of World War I, she returned to England with her sister.

She had already shown her interest in chemistry, a traditionally male-dominated scientific field. Thanks to her passion and persistence, she was accepted in 1928 at Somerville College, Oxford University, where she began her studies. By the age of 24, while still a student, she became globally known as a key figure in the development of protein crystallography.

She completed her doctorate under the supervision of John Desmond Bernal, the man who influenced both her scientific and political thinking. There she encountered the then-new method of X-ray crystallography. Together with Bernal, they studied individual crystals of a biological substance, pepsin, for the first time.

She then began to study insulin, paving the way for new treatments for diabetes, and after World War II, she shifted her interest to the study of penicillin. In 1960, she was awarded by the Royal Society of London.

Between 1950 and 1964, she was nominated for a Nobel Prize 32 times, eight for the Nobel Prize in Physics and 24 for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She remains the only British woman who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in 1964. The following year, she became the second woman to be honored with the Order of Merit, by Queen Elizabeth II.

Alongside her research work, Hodgkin devoted herself to activism. She spoke out against the Vietnam War and donated the monetary award that came with her Nobel Prize to financially support students from other countries who wished to study in England, as well as to establish a nursery at Somerville College for both young female students and female faculty members.

Dorothy Hodgkin passed away at the age of 84 in 1994. With her determination, courage, and persistence, she transcended the limits that society imposed on her gender.