'Archer John Porter Martin' (
1 March 1910 in
London -
28 July 2002) was a
British chemist and
Nobel Prize winner.
His father was a
GP. He was educated at
Bedford School and
Cambridge University. 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 B
2, and in techniques that laid the foundation for
chromatography. He developed partition chromatography whilst working on the separation of
amino acids, and later developed gas-liquid chromatography. Amongst many other honours, he received his Nobel Prize in 1952.
He was married, with two sons and three daughters.