The early (indeed whole) chess career of Davis is covered comprehensively by Brian Denman here:
http://www.hastingschess.club/2185-2/
That is a lovely article
Sadly Davis died in 1998. If the connection is valid, from the information given at the end of the Hastings & St Leonards Chess Club article, it is possible to confirm that this England chess player's later career is as described here (and that he was born in St Albans):
https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P004575b.htm
Mini-bio by John Saunders here as well:Michael Davis was a foundation member of La Trobe University's Department of Organic Chemistry. He was involved in the first ever synthetic production of penicillin.
After passing an entrance exam to Cambridge, Michael Davis was awarded a scholarship to study natural sciences at Trinity College. During his undergraduate training he carried out his two years national service with the Royal Air Force where he served as a nursing attendant in Singapore. Upon completing his degree Davis went on to obtain a doctoral degree in chemistry (1962) and the Fullbright Award to study at Stanford University, California. There he was part of the team that developed synthetic penicillin. He remained at Stanford for two years, then moved to ICI Britain before taking up a lectureship at the newly established La Trobe University. In 1970 he was promoted to senior lecturer then to reader seven years later. Michael Davis has published more than 70 papers and was a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (FRACI).
https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/va ... #1957davis
