Richard Laurence Millington Synge

Richard Laurence Millington Synge
Richard Laurence Millington Synge
Born	October 28 1914(1914-10-28) Liverpool, England
Died	August 18 1994 (aged 79) Norwich, England
Field	biochemist
Notable prizes	Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1952)

Richard Laurence Millington Synge (born Liverpool, October 28 1914, died Norwich, August 18 1994) was a British biochemist, and winner of the 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the invention of partition chromatography.

He was a close friend of John H. Humphrey. Educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Cambridge, he spent his entire career in research, at locations including Wool Industries Research Association, Leeds (1941-1943), Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, London (1943-1948), Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen (1948-1967), and Food Research Institute, Norwich (1967-1976).

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It was during his time in Leeds that he worked with Archer Martin, developing partition chromatography, a technique used in the separation mixtures of similar chemicals, that revolutionized analytical chemistry. Between 1942 and 1948 he studied peptides of the protein group gramicidin, work later used by Frederick Sanger in determining the structure of insulin.

He was for several years the treasurer of the Chemical Information Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

References

Hugh Gordon (1996). "Richard Laurence Millington Synge. 28 October 1914-18 August 1994". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 42: 454-479.
Sidney Elsden. "Richard Laurence Millington Synge".