A BECCLES scientist is the only woman to be featured on a new set of stamps to mark the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society.In the year she would have celebrated her 100th birthday, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin will take pride of place on a new 1st class stamp.

A BECCLES scientist is the only woman to be featured on a new set of stamps to mark the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society.

In the year she would have celebrated her 100th birthday, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin will take pride of place on a new 1st class stamp.

The 10 stamps issued today feature portraits of selected members of the Royal Society set in a backdrop of dramatic imagery representing their achievements.

Prof Crowfoot Hodgkin attended Sir John Leman High School, in Beccles, before going on to Somerville College, Oxford. She won worldwide recognition for her work on the structure of penicillin and insulin, and in 1964 she took the Nobel Prize for chemistry.

She died at the age of 84 in 1994 and, two years later, was included in a range of stamps that celebrated the lives of 10 gifted women.

The Royal Mail has teamed up with experts from the Royal Society to select 10 members from its illustrious history to be honoured on the split-stamp designs, including Sir Isaac Newton and Edward Jenner.

Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society, said: 'These stamps commemorate some of the best known Fellows of the Royal Society and their extraordinary achievements. As we celebrate our 350th year, we hope that they will generate a sense of excitement and pride in our scientific history, and strengthen our resolve to ensure that science yields new discoveries and benefits in the 21st century.'

For more than 50 years, Royal Mail's Special Stamp programme has commemorated significant British anniversaries, marked major events and reflected life in the UK.

Now it celebrates the anniversary of the Royal Society, an independent academy that promotes the natural and applied sciences. Founded in 1660, it has three roles, as the UK academy of science, as a learned Society, and as a funding agency.

Julietta Edgar, head of special stamps at Royal Mail, said: 'For three and a half centuries the Royal Society has maintained its position at the forefront of enquiry and discovery, and at the cutting edge of scientific progress. Now its hugely valuable role will be celebrated on millions of 1st class letters across the UK and by collectors worldwide.'

To mark the occasion, former Bungay man John Harris is organising a first day cover, with only 50 copies available. A celebration event of the life of Prof Crowfoot Hodgkins, who lived in Geldeston, is set to be held in Beccles in May to celebrate the centenary of her birth.

Orders for one of the 50 copies, which cost �2.50, should include a cheque made out to Sir John Leman High School and be sent to the headteacher, marked DCH Cover, with a full name and address.