[2] In 1954, Arnon, Mary Belle Allen and Frederick Robert Whatley discovered photophosphorylation in vitro.
Reading about scientific agriculture in the works of Jack London, led him to save his money and apply to the University of California in the United States of America.
[4] After returning from military service in 1946, Arnon became an associate professor of cell physiology at the University of California, Berkeley.
[2] In the 1950s, Arnon performed research with Mary Belle Allen and F. Robert Whatley on chloroplasts and their role in photosynthesis, identifying a process which they named "photosynthetic phosphorylation".
In 1954, they reproduced the process in a laboratory, making them the first to successfully demonstrate the chemical function of photosynthesis, producing sugar and starch from inputs of carbon dioxide and water in vitro.
[15] In 1940, together with Dennis Hoagland, Arnon received the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize for the work "Availability of Nutrients with Special Reference to Physiological Aspects".
Speakers have made significant contributions to photosynthesis or a related field and are selected by the Arnon Lecture Committee.