Richard Laurence Millington Synge FRS

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soc ...

FRIC FRSC MRIA ( Liverpool, 28 October 1914 – Norwich, 18 August 1994) was a British

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of "biological ch ...

, and shared the 1952

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

for the invention of partition chromatography with Archer Martin.

Life

Richard Laurence Millington Synge was born in West Kirby on 28 October 1914, the son of Lawrence Millington Synge, a Liverpool stock-broker, and his wife, Katherine C. Swan. Synge was educated at the Old Hall in Wellington, Shropshire and at Winchester College. He then studied Chemistry at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

. He spent his entire career in research, at the Wool Industries Research Association, Leeds (1941–1943),

Lister Institute for Preventive Medicine The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, informally known as the Lister Institute, was established as a research institute (the British Institute of Preventive Medicine) in 1891, with bacteriologist Marc Armand Ruffer as its first director, u ...

, London (1943–1948),

Rowett Research Institute The Rowett Institute is a research centre for studies into food and nutrition, located in Aberdeen, Scotland. History The institute was founded in 1913 when the University of Aberdeen and the North of Scotland College of Agriculture agreed ...

, Aberdeen (1948–1967), and

Food Research Institute Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...

, Norwich (1967–1976). 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 revolutionised analytical chemistry. Between 1942 and 1948 he studied peptides of the protein group gramicidin, work later used by

Frederick Sanger Frederick Sanger (; 13 August 1918 – 19 November 2013) was an English biochemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry twice. He won the 1958 Chemistry Prize for determining the amino acid sequence of insulin and numerous other pr ...

in determining the structure of insulin. In March 1950 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for which his candidature citation read: In 1963 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were

Magnus Pyke Magnus Alfred Pyke (29 December 1908 – 19 October 1992) was an English nutritional scientist, governmental scientific adviser, writer and presenter. He worked for the UK Ministry of Food, the post-war Allied Commission for Austria, and dif ...

, Andrew Phillipson, Sir

David Cuthbertson Sir David Paton Cuthbertson, CBE, FRSE (9 May 1900 – 15 April 1989) was a Scottish physician, biochemist, medical researcher and nutritionist who was a leading authority on metabolism. The Rowett Research Institute became one of the worl ...

and

John Andrew Crichton John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

. He was for several years the treasurer of the Chemical Information Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and was an honorary Professor in Biological Sciences at the University of East Anglia from 1968 to 1984. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science (ScD) from the University of East Anglia in 1977, and an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Mathematics and Science at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

, Sweden in 1980.

Personal life

In 1943 Synge married Ann Davies Stephen (1916–1997). Ann Stephen was the daughter of psychologist

Karin Stephen Karin Stephen (née Costelloe; 10 March 1889 – 12 December 1953) was a British psychoanalyst and psychologist. Early life and education Karin Stephen was born Catherine Elizabeth Costelloe. Her mother, Mary Costelloe (born Mary Whitall Smith ...

and psychoanalyst Adrian Stephen. Ann's sister Judith (1918-1972) was married to documentary artist and photographer Nigel Henderson.

References

External links

* * Synge's Nobel Lectur
Applications of Partition Chromatography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Synge, Richard 1914 births 1994 deaths People educated at Winchester College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British biochemists Nobel laureates in Chemistry British Nobel laureates Scientists from Liverpool Academics of the University of East Anglia Fellows of the Royal Society English Nobel laureates