 in chemistry in 1932, and remained at Yale for a Ph.D. in organic chemistry.After completing his doctoral work in 1935, Hotchkiss became a fellow of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, where he would remain until retirement in 1982.At the Rockefeller Institute, Hotchkiss initially worked as an assistant to Oswald Avery and Walter Goebel, and was encouraged to learn more biology at a summer courses at the Marine Biological Laboratory.