 Her studies of polysaccharide metabolism in tobacco plants were groundbreaking; she was one of the first British scientists to use the innovative technologies of chromatography and radioactive tracers.Porter was born Helen Kemp Archbold in 1899, at Place Hale in the town of Farnham, Surrey.Her father, George Kemp Archbold, was the headmaster of a school and her mother, Caroline Emily Broughton Whitehead, was a Belgian-trained professional singer.