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 with
Anthony T. James. Amongst many honours, he received his Nobel Prize in 1952. After his retirement from the University of Sussex, he was visiting professor at both the
University of Houston in Texas and the
EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) in Switzerland. He published far fewer papers than the typical Nobel winners—only 70 in all—but his ninth paper contained the work that would eventually win him the Nobel Prize. 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==