Phillips graduated from public high school and immediately entered the U.S. Navy V-12 program in 1943.
Phillips began to explore the nascent field of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).
In 1973 he was on assignment from DuPont to ICI as liaison to their program to produce protein for animal feed from methane through fermentation microbiology.
Retiring from DuPont Central Research in 1978, Phillips assumed the positions of chair and Charles Allen Thomas professor of chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis.
He served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals and on the boards of directors of Mallinckrodt, Sigma-Aldrich, the Missouri Corporation for Science and Technology, the St. Louis Science Center, the St. Louis Technology Center, and Celgene Corporation.