Penelope Wixson Codding retired as a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Victoria in 2012. Prof. Codding began her crystallographic career at Michigan State University under the supervision of Dr. Alexander Tulinsky, earning her Ph.D. in 1971 with a thesis that included small molecule direct methods and protein structure work. From 1971 to 1974, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta under the supervision of Dr. M.N.G. James and Dr. W.A.G. Graheme. Prof. Codding worked in part-time positions at Kent State University and the University of Calgary during the birth of her two children, from 1974 to 1981. In 1981, she became part of the first cohort of Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) Scholars at the University of Calgary and was promoted to Professor of Chemistry (Heritage Medical Scholar) in 1989. Codding moved to the University of Victoria in 1996 to serve as Professor of Chemistry and Vice-President Academic and Provost.

Prof. Codding’s research focused on drug design and structure-activity relationships, with an emphasis on anti-anxiety, antiarrhythmic, and other compounds active in the central nervous system. She was an invited lecturer at medicinal chemistry as well as crystallographic symposia. Her work appeared in a range of journals, spanning medicine to structure, and was funded by MRC Canada, NSERC, and AHFMR. Prof. Codding was recognized by her election as a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada in 1989 and her receipt of the Clara Benson Award from the Canadian Society for Chemistry in 1994. She was named the Calgary YWCA Woman of the Year in Science and Technology in 1990 and the Victoria YW-YMCA Woman of Distinction in Science, Research, and Technology in 2004. Prof. Codding also received a University of Victoria Faculty of Science teaching award in 2009.

Codding served the crystallographic community in numerous roles, including as President of the American Crystallographic Association (ACA) in 1998, on the ACA Council from 1997 to 1999, and as Program Chair of the ACA national meeting in Seattle in 1989. She was a member of the Executive Committee of the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) from 1990 to 1996. She also served as Chair of the Ewald Prize Committee of the IUCr from 2000 to 2002 and as a member of the Commission on Small Molecules of the IUCr from 1984 to 1993. She was a frequent symposium organizer for the ACA and IUCr and was Director of the International School of Crystallography on Experimental and Computational Approaches to Structure-Based Drug Design in Erice, Italy, in 1996. She served as a Canadian co-editor for Acta Crystallographica from 1990 to 1993 and as an editor for Zeitschrift für Kristallographie from 2001 to 2009.

Prof. Codding held several academic administrative roles during her career, including Head of Chemistry at the University of Calgary (1993–1996), Vice-President Academic and Provost at the University of Victoria (1996–2001), Associate Vice-President Research at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (2003–2011), and brief terms as Chair of Chemistry at the University of Victoria in 2007 and 2010.