Archer John Porter Martin

Martin shared the 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Richard Synge for inventing partition chromatography. Their work changed how chemists separated complex mixtures such as amino acids.

Martin helped develop gas-liquid chromatography with Anthony T. James in the early 1950s. That technique became foundational for analyzing volatile compounds in chemistry, medicine, and industry.

It separates substances based on how they distribute between two phases, rather than simply sticking to a solid surface. Martin and Synge's 1941 work showed how this could be used to separate amino acids from proteins.

He worked in biochemistry, including vitamins and amino acids, but his lasting fame is in analytical separation methods. His chromatography work made later laboratory tools much more powerful.