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Dorothy Maud Wrinch, a mathematician, is best known for her work to explain protein structure using mathematical principles. She was born in 1894 in Rosario, Argentina to Hugh Edward Hart and Ada Minnie Souter Wrinch. The family returned to England and Wrinch grew up in Surbiton, near London. She attended a local public day school, Surbiton High. She won a scholarship to attend Girton College at Cambridge University, where she graduated in 1916 as a Wrangler in mathematics. This was the highest ranking possible on the final examinations in mathematics. She earned her M.A. degree at Cambridge in mathematics in 1918. She became a lecturer in mathematics at University College, London and then returned to Girton College in 1921 as a research scholar. She moved to Balliol College at Oxford University upon her marriage to John William Nicholson in 1923. Their only child, Pamela, was born in 1927. Wrinch tutored mathematics in five women's colleges during this period.
From 1918 to 1932, Dorothy Wrinch not only published 20 papers on pure and applied mathematics, but also 16 on scientific methodology and on the philosophy of science. In the early 1930s, Wrinch's marriage broke apart because of her husband's alcoholism. Sorely needing money to support herself and her daughter, she began to learn more about biology and chemistry and molecular structure. She then was able to secure a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to support work on the application of mathematics to biological molecular structures. She relocated to the United States as a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University. In 1941 she accepted a joint position as visiting professor simultaneously at Amherst, Smith, and Mount Holyoke Colleges. She remained a visiting professor at Smith College until she retired in 1971.
Dorothy Wrinch developed a controversial cyclic model of protein structure, which later became known as the "cyclol" structure. She based her theory on mathematical symmetry ideas and covalent bonding between two adjacent amino acids. Even though this theory was later proven to be incorrect for proteins, the type of chemical bond she proposed has been found in some alkaloids.
Dorothy Wrinch later focused on the application of mathematical principles to the interpretation of X-ray crystallographic data of complex crystal structures. This culminated in her book, Fourier Transforms and Structure Factors, published in 1946.
Dorothy Maud Wrinch spent her final days at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
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This short biographical "snapshot" provides basic information about the person's chemical work, gender, ethnicity, and cultural background. A list of references is given along with additional WWW sites to further your exploration into the life and work of this chemist.