VPW: Leadership, Gender, and Collaboration in Science: Dorothy C. Hodgkin (1910-94) and the Oxford School of Biomolecular Crystallography

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This research explores two phases in the rise of the research school of bimolecular crystallography at Oxford, the only research school in international renown led by a woman, and the only such school to include a critical mass of women members. Led by Dorothy C. Hodgkin (1910-1994), a sole Nobelist in chemistry (1964), this research school distinguished itself by successfully solving the structure of a series of biological compounds of increasing structural complexity, including the sterol (sex hormones) in the late 1930s; penicillin (the miracle drug for infectious diseases, especially in WW2) in the 1940s; vitamin B-12 (the factor needed to prevent pernicious anemia) in the 1950s; and insulin (the hormone regulating sugar metabolism) in the 1960s. This project focuses on the relationship between molecular and social complexity in the work on the structure of penicillin (1940s) and vitamin B-12 (the 1950s), phases in which women were key members of the research teams. First, the project explores the gender dimensions of this research school, while focusing on: a) the recruitment and retaining of members of both sexes in a research school led by a woman, at a time very few women persisted in science, let alone in positions of authority; b) the career patterns of the women members, in and out of a school in which they both had a distinguished role model and a "critical mass". this part of the project can offer important historical lessons for framing a science policy agenda to foster gender equality in 21st Century science. Second, the project clarifies the social processes of cross-gender collaboration and the scientific outcomes involved in the transition from the X-ray crystallography of "small" biological molecules to that of large macromolecule (proteins and DNA), a transition crucial for our understanding of the molecular revolution in 20th Century biology. Interactive activities include: teaching a new research seminar on "History and social implic ations of molecular biology and biotechnology" for one term; teaching a new undergraduate course on "New direction in the history of women in science" for another term, and organizing a workshop on "Science policy or social policy for women in science: From historical case-studies to an agenda for the 21st Century".