While working at the Royal Arsenal during the Second World War, he completed a Bachelor of Science in chemistry at London University in 1944.
[2] After the war, Butt began working at the London Hospital as a research assistant to the endocrinologist Carl Crooke.
He moved with Crooke to the Birmingham and Midlands Hospital for Women in 1948, where their research focused on the pituitary-ovarian-uterine axis and female infertility.
He was the author of six books, including the popular reference text Hormone Chemistry (1967), and over 250 journal articles.
[4] From 1965, he was a consultant to the World Health Organization, providing advice to developing countries on opening laboratory services.