 Following his doctorate he took up a fellowship at the Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory at Yale University with Grace E. Pickford.After a lectureship at Sheffield University Phillips was appointed to the Chair of Zoology at the University of Hong Kong.He returned to the UK to become Professor of Zoology, from 1967–79, and Dean of the Faculty of Science (1978-1980) at the University of Hull, Director of the Wolfson Institute for Gerontology (1979-1986) (located at the University of Hull) and later Vice-Chancellor of Loughborough University from 1986-1987.