(1914-1994) British biochemist who improved paper chromatography (a means of separating mixtures) to the point where individual amino acids could be identified. He developed the technique, known as partition chromatography, with his colleague Archer Martin 1944. They shared the 1952 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
Synge was born in Liverpool and studied at Winchester College and Trinity College, Cambridge. From 1967 until his retirement in 1974 he worked as a biochemist at the Food Research Institute of the Agricultural Research Council in Norwich.
Martin and Synge worked together at Cambridge and at the Wool Industries Research Association in Leeds. Their chromatographic method became an immediate success, widely adopted. It was soon demonstrated that not only the type but the concentration of each amino acid can be determined.
In the early 1940s there were only crude chromatographic techniques available for separating proteins in reasonably large samples; no method existed for the separation of the amino acids that make up proteins. Martin and Synge developed the technique of paper chromatography, using porous filter paper to separate out amino acids using a solvent. A minute quantity of the amino acid solution is placed at the tip of the filter paper; once dry it is dipped (or suspended) in a solvent. As the solvent passes the mixture the amino acids move with it, but they do so at different rates and so become separated. Once dry the paper is sprayed with a developer and the amino acids show up as dark dots. Synge and Martin announced their technique 1944; it was soon being applied to a wide variety of experimental problems.
Paper chromatography is so precise that it can be used to identify amino acid concentration, as well as type, enabling Synge to work out the exact structure of the antibiotic peptide Gramicidin-S, a piece of research important to Frederick Sanger's determination of the structure of insulin 1953.
In 1948 Synge moved to the Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen, where he remained in charge of protein chemistry until 1967. He then moved to Norwich where he became Honourary Professor of Biology at the University of East Anglia. Synge was very active in the peace movement, and after his retirement in 1976, he became treasurer of the Norwich Peace Council. He died in Norwich.

J(ohn) M(illington) (1871-1909) Irish dramatist. He was a leading figure in the Irish dramatic revival of the early 20th century. His six plays reflect the speech patterns of the Aran Islands and W Ireland. They include In the Shadow of the Glen 1903, Riders to the Sea 1904, and The Playboy of the Western World 1907, which caused riots at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, when first performed.