Archer Martin, FRS, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1952

Archer John Porter Martin CBE FRS (1 March 1910 – 28 July 2002) was a British chemist who shared the 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the invention of partition chromatography with Richard Synge.

Early life

Martin's father was a GP. Martin was educated at Bedford School, and Peterhouse, 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.

Awards

Archer Martin shared the 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the invention of partition chromatography with Richard Synge.

Archer Martin’s 1954 paper with A. T. James, “Gas-Liquid Chromatography: A Technique for the Analysis and Identification of Volatile Materials” reported the discovery of gas-liquid chromatography. This publication was honored by a Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award from the Division of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society presented in 2016 to the Francis Crick Institute. The research was actually performed at the National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill, which became the Francis Crick Institute in 2015.

Martin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1950, and made a CBE in 1960.

Personal life

In 1943 he married Judith Bagenal (1918-2006), and together they had two sons and three daughters. In the last years of his life he suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

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Yorkshire Evening Post, 11-6-2019 by Allison Bellami A BLUE plaque was unveiled in honour of two flatmates called Archer Martin and Richard Synge, who lived in Headingley in the 1940s.

Researchers Martin and Synge did actually win a Nobel prize for partition chromatography, whilst working on Headingley Lane at the Wool Institute Research Association in 1941.

The plaque was unveiled by special guest Chris Hatton, the President of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society (LPLS).

Mr Hatton said: “Although the aim of their work was originally to study wool fibres, its impact was to go much further than the local textile industries as it eventually allowed us to understand the structure of medically important proteins such as insulin, and also helped to unlock the secret of how DNA carries the genetic message.”

As LPLS celebrates its b-icentenary this year, it is delighted to mark this important piece of the heritage of Leeds.

The plaque was unveiled yesterday at the site of the labs where Martin and Synge used to work on Headingley Lane.

Dr Kersten Hall, a former molecular biologist in the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds, will now explore their life and work.