Synge, Martin, Dixon and Mitchell

Holmes and Synge demonstrating for the 1937-1938 Part I Class

From 1938 to 1941 Richard Synge worked in the Department as an International Wool Secretariat research student. After moving to Leeds he shared with Archer John Porter Martin, also a former member of the Department, the 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the invention of partition chromatography.

During the Second World War Malcolm Dixon became Head of Extramural Research, working primarily on poison gases and antidotes. This continued into his post-war study of enzyme inhibition. In 1943 Peter Mitchell joined Dixon's team. For his subsequent formulation of the chemiosmotic theory Mitchell won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.