Dorothy Wrinch was born in Rosario, Argentina, in 1894 to English parents, Hugh Edward Hart and Ada Minnie Souter Wrinch. The family relocated to England where Wrinch received her education. Wrinch graduated from Surbiton High, near London. She received a degree in mathematics in 1916 from Girton College at Cambridge University, and a MA in mathematics in 1918.
In 1923, Wrinch married John William Nicholson and joined Balliol College at Oxford University. Wrinch had one child, Pamela, in 1927, and divorced in the early 1930s. Under the pseudonym, Jean Ayling, Wrinch published a book on parenting, The Retreat from Parenthood, in 1930.
Wrinch received a DSc from Oxford University in 1929, the first woman to attain this degree from Oxford. She taught physics at Oxford during this time and decided to expand her credentials in biology, chemistry, and molecular structure. Wrinch conducted research in the area of genetics and proposed a theoretical model of the gene in a T-shaped construction. Her cyclol theory was that the amino acids formed chains. Many research scientists were proposing theories during this time. And like many other theories, her theory was later proved wrong. Her research and papers are considered to be positive contributions to genetics. A chemical bond, similar to the one Wrinch described, does exist in some alkaloids.
Her strategy for expanding her field of research did pay off, and she received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for research that combined mathematics and molecular structures. She relocated to the United States and accepted an appointment at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore as a lecturer in chemistry in 1939. In 1941, she accepted a joint position at Amherst, Smith, and Mount Holyoke Colleges. She remained with Smith until her retirement.
Wrinch had widely varied interests. She published extensively in areas including scientific methodology, the philosophy of science, probability, X-ray crystallography, mathematics, Fourier transformations, mineralogy, and protein crystals. Wrinch wrote or co-authored close to 200 articles and publications. She had a reputation for being strongly opinionated, and was much more interested in discussing her work and research than anyone else's.
Although she did not win, Wrinch was nominated for a Nobel Prize.
She died in 1976, in Massachusetts.
Sources
http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/JCEWWW/Features/eChemists/Bios/Wrinch.html
http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/Museum/wri.html
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Wrinch.html
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