Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius was a Swedish research scientist who developed effective methods for separating molecules, making purification and precision analysis of these vital structures possible. Born in Stockholm in 1902 to an academic family, Tiselius grew up in Göteborg after his father died when he was four. Tiselius's interest in science developed in grammar school, and he went on to study at the University of Uppsala, from where he received his master's degree in chemistry, physics, and mathematics in 1924.

In 1925 Tiselius became research assistant to his teacher, Theodor Svedberg (1884-1971), an eminent chemist with an absorbing interest in analyzing biological molecules. At the time, Svedberg was developing the high-speed centrifuge as a means of separating molecules. Svedberg had Tiselius work on another method of molecular separation, electrophoresis. Molecules of different sizes and electric charges move at different speeds and in different directions within an electric field...