 He has been called "the unsung hero of radiocarbon dating" by Eric Willis, the first director of the radiocarbon-dating laboratory at the University of Cambridge.The 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Willard Libby for his radiocarbon-dating method.His other major area of research included studies of human color vision and hearing.De Vries became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1956.