Before this he had already become a renowned scientist, having received his doctorate at Cambridge University and become a fellow of Gonville and Caius College in 1924. In the same year he married his first wife, Dorothy Moyle.
在此之前，他是一位已然名重士林的科學家，他在一九二四年獲得劍橋大學博士學位，隨即當選該校凱思學院院士，同年與第一任夫人李大棐（Dorothy Moyle）結婚。