Murray achieved a 1st class honours degree in chemistry followed by PhD from the
University of Birmingham. From 1960 to 1964 he was a researcher at
J. Murray Luck's laboratory at
Stanford University and from 1964 to 1967 he was a researcher at
Fred Sanger's laboratory at
Cambridge University. In 1967, he was appointed lecturer at the
University of Edinburgh and in 1976 he became Head of Molecular Biology. In 1984 he was appointed Biogen Professor of Molecular Biology, a post which he retained until his retirement. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1979, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1989 and awarded the RSE Royal Medal in 2000 with the citation "For their outstanding contribution to the development of Biotechnology, both nationally and internationally, through his development of what is now known as recombinant DNA technology." ==Personal life==