Sir Charles Dodds (1899–1973) was not a practising physician, but a ‘laboratory man’. He was knighted because of his work on synthesising new oestrogens, in particular stilboestrol, which he discovered in 1938. Stilboestrol has since been used for controlling carcinoma of the prostate. In the portrait, Dodds is holding a page showing the formula for stilboestrol. Dodds was educated at Middlesex Hospital Medical School, and at age 25 he was appointed Courtauld Professor of Biochemistry. He radically reorganised the teaching of biochemistry and chemistry at the Hospital, insisting that the two disciplines be integrated. He was president of the Royal College of Physicians, London, between 1962 and 1966, and his presidency has been described as ‘unobtrusive and efficient’.