Archer J.P. Martin

Facts

Archer John Porter Martin

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Archer John Porter Martin
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1952

Born: 1 March 1910, London, United Kingdom

Died: 28 July 2002, Llangarron, United Kingdom

Affiliation at the time of the award: National Institute for Medical Research, London, United Kingdom

Prize motivation: “for their invention of partition chromatography”

Prize share: 1/2

Work

When a drop of a liquid containing a mixture of various substances is placed on paper, the liquid begins to spread out on the paper. The various substances in the mixture spread at different speeds, however, which gives rise to marks on the paper with different colors. In the 1940s Archer Martin and Richard Synge used this and similar phenomena in gas mixtures, for example, to develop different types of chromatography—methods for separating substances in mixtures and for determining the composition of mixtures.

To cite this section
MLA style: Archer J.P. Martin – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Wed. 23 Oct 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1952/martin/facts/>

Back to top Back To Top Takes users back to the top of the page

Nobel Prizes and laureates

Nobel Prizes 2024

Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.

See them all presented here.
Illustration

Explore prizes and laureates

Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize.