 He was discharged as a sergeant in September 1958 and after obtaining his BA from University of Cambridge he went on to earn a PhD in biophysics from King's College London in 1965 studying in the department where Maurice Wilkins and John Randall worked.Following his PhD, Tooze spent two years working as a postdoctoral researcher working on Bacteriophage genetics with James Watson at Harvard University.He returned to the UK and was appointed a lecturer at King's College London from 1965 to 1968.