Nobel Prize Winners | Rowett Centenary | The University of Aberdeen

Nobel Prize Winners

JJR Macleod (1923)

A graduate of Marischal College, University of Aberdeen, Macleod was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for 1923.

He shared the honour with Frederick Banting for the research which led to the development of insulin as a treatment for diabetes.

Macleod joined the Rowett Institute in 1928 as a Consultant Physiologist, a post he held together with Regius Professor of Physiology at the University of Aberdeen.

John Boyd Orr (1949)

The Rowett’s founding director, John Boyd Orr, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1949 – a unique achievement for a scientist.

He was awarded the Prize for his scientific research into nutrition and his work as the first Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Boyd Orr donated the entire financial award to organisations devoted to world peace and a united world government.

RLM Synge (1952)

Richard Laurence Millington Synge shared the 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the invention of partition chromatography with Archer Martin.

They developed a technique used in the separation mixtures of similar chemicals, that revolutionised analytical chemistry

In 1948 he became head of the department of protein and carbohydrate chemistry at the Rowett and remained at the Institute until 1967.