Archer Martin | |
---|---|
Born | Archer John Porter Martin 1 March 1910 London, England |
Died | 28 July 2002 Llangarron, Wales |
(aged 92)
Nationality | British |
Fields | Chemistry |
Alma mater | Peterhouse, Cambridge |
Known for | Chromatography |
Notable awards |
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1952) John Price Wetherill Medal (1959) |
Archer John Porter Martin, FRS (1 March 1910 – 28 July 2002) was an English chemist who shared the 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the invention of partition chromatography with Richard Synge.
Martin's father was a GP. Martin was educated at Bedford School, and the University of Cambridge.
Working first in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory, he moved to the Dunn Nutritional Laboratory, and in 1938 moved to Wool Industries Research Institution in Leeds. He was head of the biochemistry division of Boots Pure Drug Company from 1946 to 1948, when he joined the Medical Research Council. There, he was appointed head of the physical chemistry division of the National Institute for Medical Research in 1952, and was chemical consultant from 1956 to 1959.
He specialised in biochemistry, in some aspects of vitamins E and B2, and in techniques that laid the foundation for several new types of chromatography. He developed partition chromatography whilst working on the separation of amino acids, and later developed gas-liquid chromatography. Amongst many honours, he received his Nobel Prize in 1952.
He published far fewer papers than the typical Nobel winners—only 70 in all—but his ninth paper won the Nobel. The University of Houston dropped him from its chemistry faculty in 1979 (when he was 69 years old) because he was not publishing enough.